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FIRST ON FOX: A new campaign launched on Monday to help fulfill President Donald Trump’s pledge to reduce fentanyl overdose deaths, which are one of the nation’s deadliest public health crises.
The campaign, titled Make America Fentanyl Free, is described as a privately-funded multi-million-dollar ad blitz on national and local television, and across all major social media platforms, including X, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Facebook.
The effort, which was first shared with Fox News Digital on Monday, aims to reduce the number of Americans killed by fentanyl, a highly potent and extremely dangerous synthetic opioid. Fentanyl and fentanyl-related drugs have been responsible for most drug overdose deaths in the U.S. for nearly a decade.
“The Make America Fentanyl Free ad campaign was launched to support President Trump’s efforts to save American lives from deadly fentanyl, which continues to be a leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45,” organizers said in a statement.
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Organizers emphasized that the mission of the campaign, which is also online at MakeAmericaFentanylFree.com, is to inform Americans about the devastating effects of fentanyl, and pointed out that “ingesting as little as three grains of fentanyl can be lethal within minutes.”
The campaign is also intended to educate the public about the hidden dangers of fentanyl, which is frequently disguised in other substances, such as cocaine and marijuana.
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“Make America Fentanyl Free is working with President Trump to aggressively make sure every American understands the danger of fentanyl,” the narrator in the ad says.
The effort also intends to “send a strong unequivocal message to Mexican drug cartels that actions leading to American deaths or harm will result in serious consequences.”
The Trump administration says it has lowered fentanyl deaths in the U.S. by beefing up security along the nation’s borders, emphasizing law enforcement, and raising tariffs against China and Mexico to keep fentanyl and other lethal drugs out of the country.
Organizers touted that “on day one in office, President Trump shut down the dangerous, open border and stemmed the flow of deadly fentanyl through our country. As a result, fentanyl traffic at the border fell by 54% in the first months of the Trump Administration.
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But organizers said their effort is needed to “continue eradicating deadly fentanyl from our communities.”
Trump last month signed into law a bill permanently placing street versions of fentanyl on the list of controlled substances, which should make it easier to prosecute fentanyl traffickers and put them behind bars.
But the Trump administration has also been criticized when it comes to battling fentanyl deaths, for seeking major cuts to domestic programs that work to reduce drug demand.
And Democrats in California, taking aim at what they call Trump’s “unlawful deployment of military personnel to Los Angeles,” say the effort has slashed the California’s National Guard’s fentanyl and drug interdiction force by 32%, “directly harming California’s ability to fight the flow of illegal drugs into our communities.”
Organizers of the new effort highlight that Make America Fentanyl Free is a privately funded campaign “launched without taxpayer dollars.”
Some of the major contributions to fund the campaign have come from a number of the president’s major donors and allies, according to sources in Trump’s political orbit.
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