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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump doesn't really understand numbers.
Iâm beginning to think he doesnât really understand numbers.
— David Corn (@davidcorn.bsky.social) 2025-09-18T13:02:45.846Z
marble falls
(72,531 posts)Trump Again Overstates Number of Drug Overdose Deaths in U.S.
By Alan Jaffe
Posted on September 12, 2025
Reviving an unfounded claim he has made for several years, President Donald Trump on Sept. 5 overstated the number of Americans who died in 2024 of drug overdoses, saying that he believed 300,000 or 350,000 people died last year from drugs. A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told us the provisional number of drug overdose deaths in 2024 was 79,383, and an expert in addiction medicine told us Trumps number was a gross exaggeration.
Trump made the overestimate at the White House while signing an executive order renaming the Department of Defense as the Department of War. Asked by a reporter about the recent U.S. military buildup in the southern Caribbean Sea near Venezuela, Trump said those actions were in response to drug trafficking. Eight U.S. warships carrying attack aircraft, an attack submarine and Navy surveillance planes have been deployed to the southern Caribbean, the New York Times reported.
highplainsdem
(63,107 posts)marble falls
(72,531 posts)Wiz Imp
(10,423 posts)See video in the linked article
https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-79-says-most-americans-were-killed-by-drugs-in-bonkers-claim/
marble falls
(72,531 posts)tanyev
(49,688 posts)Swede
(40,081 posts)Johonny
(26,618 posts)Yeah, yeah we're investing 5 trillion over twenty years. And we are throwing in a jewel covered unicorn. Yes, with big tits.
uponit7771
(93,532 posts)Redleg
(7,026 posts)All we need are vibes, not actual numbers. If we rely on vibes and anecdotes we can make a case for anything.
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