Pam Bondi claim that Trump administration saved '119 million lives' goes viral

Kirby Wilson, Tampa Bay Times on Apr 30, 2025

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U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi this week said the Trump administration has saved more than 119 million lives with its drug prevention efforts.

“In President Trump’s first 100 days we’ve seized over 22 million fentanyl laced pills, saving over 119 Million lives,” Bondi posted to X on Tuesday on her official account.

The post was viewed more than two million times, according to X’s metrics. It was reposted nearly 3,000 times.

Then, at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Bondi went a step further. She said the Trump administration had saved 258 million people, also citing fentanyl seizures.

The population of the United States is about 342 million, meaning Bondi said the Trump administration saved about 1 in 3 American lives — then she claimed more than half the population had been saved.

Fentanyl is at the core of the American opioid overdose epidemic. Because it is so potent and relatively inexpensive to manufacture, the drug is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths every year.

Bondi’s comment about hundreds of millions of lives depends on all of the fentanyl that the Trump administration seized being consumed — and each pill claiming multiple victims.

The U.S. was seeing progress in the fight against opioid deaths before Trump took office. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioid deaths fell by more than 27,000 from October 2023 to September 2024 compared to the previous 12-month period.

Trump took office Jan. 20. More recent data on opioid deaths is not yet available.

Fentanyl drug seizures at the U.S.-Mexico border were down this March compared to March 2024, Customs and Border Protection data shows — although that’s partly an indication of the Trump administration’s work to discourage illegal border crossings generally.

Bondi’s statement came the same day she visited the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s forensic drug lab.

As Florida’s attorney general from 2011 until 2019, Bondi oversaw state law enforcement during the worst of the “pill mill” crisis — which was a main catalyst for the national opioid epidemic.

Drug overdose remains the leading cause of death for Americans 18-44, the CDC noted.

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