TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Announces Efforts to Combat Drug Addiction, 1.29.26
[Video]
President Trump: Well, thank you very much, everybody. It's been a little busy day, right? We had a good -- a good morning and now we're having a good evening. And we're going to a premiere in a little while, but there's nothing more important than what we're doing right now, in my opinion. Today, I'm signing a historic executive order to combat the scourge of addiction and substance abuse.
A big deal in this country and every -- probably in every country. We're calling it the Great American Recovery Initiative. I'm grateful to be joined by co-chairs of the sweeping new effort, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F, Kennedy Jr., and senior advisor to the White House Great American Recovery Initiative, Kathryn Burgum. Thank you both very much. Thank you both very much. Thank you, Kathryn.
Kathryn Burgum: Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir.
Trump: Thank you. Where's Bobby?
Unidentified: Right there, sir.
Trump: Bobby? [Laughter] Hello, Bobby. Come here and give me your hand. I love Bobby. [Laughter] You're doing a great job, Kathryn. All right, do we think so? Who's doing a better job, him or your husband? [Laughter] Maybe -- maybe the husband, though he's doing a good job. [Laughter]
Burgum: I'm just getting started, sir.
Trump: They're both doing very well. And now, you're going to do better than both of them. [Laughter] Thanks as well to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary Doug Burgum, Secretary Scott Turner, Secretary Doug Collins, Special Envoy Witkoff:, who's got some pretty good news, chief of staff, Susie Wiles, FDA commissioner, Dr. Marty Makary, NIH Director, Dr. Bhattacharya:. Oh, I've gotten good at that, Jay.
Jay Bhattacharya: You are so good at that, sir.
Trump: Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and -- Medicare and Medicaid Services, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who's doing a fantastic job. And Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Sara Carter. I also want to, uh, introduce a great friend of mine who happened to be here, and he's very much, uh, committed to this. He knows how important it is for our country. He's built a tremendous American company. Uh, it's called WeatherTech. I guess you've seen the ads. I've seen the ads. I think they're great ads. But more importantly, it's a great product. David MacNeil. David, congratulations on what you've done. It's incredible.
David MacNeil: Thank you, Mr. President.
Trump: Thank you, really great. And the President of WeatherTech, Ryan Granger. Ryan, congratulations, what a great job. They built an American company and uh, it's a thriving company, too, so, with a great product.
Ryan Granger: It's great to be here in America.
Unidentified: [Inaudible] it is.
Trump: You know, when I was in the private sector, I'd always buy the floor mats, but now that I'm in the -- now that I'm President, I no longer have to buy floor mats, but you made a great floor mat, and you still do. And lots of other things. [Laughter]
Granger: Thank you. [Laughter]
Trump: Many of those with me today have personally known the heartache of a loved one taken by drug or alcohol addiction. I do, just like millions of American families. Every year we lose an estimated 300,000 people to drug and alcohol abuse. And the real number is probably much, much higher than that. Thankfully drug overdose deaths plummeted by 21 percent in the last year. We're working very hard on it. We've closed the southern border, seized over 47 million fentanyl pills and 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder. That's a record. And I have formally designated Dr. -- uh, and I'll tell you what, we have a group of doctors, some of them behind me who have just been incredible, and they've really wanted this designated the drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
And for some reason, they didn't want to do that until we came along. But they are indeed foreign terrorist organizations. With our action in the Gulf of America, that sounds so nice when I hear the Gulf of America, drugs entering our country by sea are down 97 percent. So when you see the boats being hit, those boats kill on average 25,000 people a boat. So that's 25,000, I would assume mostly American lives, but lives are being saved. Now, we're taking a bold action to help Americans struggling with all forms of addiction so they can get the help and the support that they need to free themselves from the horrible burden of dependency. The Great American Recovery Initiative will bring together federal, state, local and private sector resources to support addiction, recovery, treatment and prevention, and it will help mobilize the full resources and authority of the federal government to help stop this tremendous plague. And I'd now like to invite Secretary Kennedy to start and then Burgum:. And then I'll sign the order which I've just signed and uh, want to make sure the signature was good. Took my time. And we -- let me just see. [Laughter] Pretty good, not -- not -- ah, it's pretty good.
Burgum: Yeah. [Laughter]
Trump: Uh, let's give it a ten, OK? [Laughter] For Kathryn. But uh, I'd like Bobby to say a few words, then Kathryn. Thank you very much, everybody. Please.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Mr. President, thank you for your leadership for signing an executive order that tells the truth about one of the greatest challenges that our country faces. Addiction is not a moral failure. It is a disease. It's chronic. It's treatable. And for too long, our nation has responded with fragmentation, with stigmatization and silence instead of science, compassion and coordination.
Today, President Trump changes that with the Great American Recovery Initiative, we finally bring the full strength of the federal government together across health care, law enforcement, housing, labor, faith communities and the private sector to save lives, restore families and rebuild communities that addiction has hollowed out.
Nearly 50 million Americans suffer from substance use disorder, many never receive treatment, even more don't believe that help is possible. That is not because recovery doesn't work. It's because our systems have failed to reach the people where they are early enough long enough and with dignity. This initiative fixes that. We will align federal programs instead of letting them operate in silos. We will set clear, measurable goals and report honestly to the American people. We will use evidence based care, modern science and continuous support just as we do for heart disease, diabetes and other chronic illnesses.
We will focus on prevention before addiction takes hold. We will intervene early. We will expand access to treatment that leads to real long term recovery. And we will support reentry because recovery does not end when treatment ends. It succeeds when people return to their families, their jobs and their communities with purpose and with hope. As co-chair of this initiative, alongside of Burgum:, whose leadership and commitment strengthens this work, I pledge urgency, accountability and honesty. Kathryn and I share the experience of having been addicted and long term recovery. Almost everybody in this room and almost everybody in our country has been touched by addiction. Steve Witkoff, who was here, had an extraordinary son, Andrew, who was a superstar boy, a straight-A student, an athlete and -- and a -- and a wonderful leader and lost that son to addiction. President Trump has talked about his own family's struggle with addiction. All of us are touched. If it touches these people, it can hurt every American.
And President Trump has often talked about with compassion about the families who lose children to this disease, 100,000 children a year, until recently. Now it's about 76,000. Those families are devastated forever. And the cost to our country, not only in dollars but in just the malaise and the despair that it imposes is incalculable. We are going to listen to states, localities, frontline providers and tribal nations. We will partner with communities and faith based organizations. We will work with employers, clinicians and recovery leaders who know what works on the ground. President Trump has already acted decisively securing the border against deadly drugs, signing the Halt Fentanyl Act, strengthening treatment programs, expanding access to naloxone and medication assisted treatments and investing billions in prevention and recovery.
This executive order builds on that record and accelerates it. Recovery is not a side issue. It's an economic issue, a workforce issue, a family issue, a national security issue. When Americans recover, communities grow stronger and families heal, children thrive. And when we confront addiction with courage instead of complacency, we reclaim the promise of our country. This initiative is about life, it's about responsibility and it's about building a great American recovery together. With this executive order and with major announcements that I will announce next week, we are taking decisive action to make America healthy again. Thank you.
Trump: Thank you, Bobby, and great job, and you're doing a fantastic job. He's doing a fantastic. And I saw his wife yesterday and she confirmed that he's doing a fantastic job. [Laughter] So she's on your side and know that. She's great. And I also want to thank you for being here. We appreciate it. Kathryn, please go ahead.
Burgum: Thank you, Mr. President.
Trump: Thank you.
Burgum: Thank you so much. Your leadership today relative to this announcement about the Great American Recovery and is a gift to all Americans who are suffering from the brain disease of addiction. I also want to thank First Lady Melania Trump for her leadership during the -- your first -- your first administration and now for the work she's doing championing youth and children, especially related to foster care where early trauma and instability are often consequences of the disease of addiction.
Addictions touched this administration in real and profound ways. President Trump, you have openly spoke about your brother Fred, who struggled with addiction, shaped your life and your understanding of this disease. And Susie Wiles carries the lived experience of her father, the late, great Pat Summerall, whose recovery journey became a source of hope for millions. Vice President Vance has shared his story of his mother's battle and recovery. And as Secretary Kennedy just said, he brings his own lived experience. Proof that recovery is not theoretical. It is possible. These stories matter because they are not isolated. They reflect the reality of the over 190 million Americans, that's half our nation, who are impacted in some way by the disease of addiction.
And I am one of them. I started drinking in high school and I was a blackout drinker from the start. For 20 years I struggled, relapsing constantly, constantly starting over, constantly trying to stay sober and failing. Now I reach a point where I truly did not believe there was one single reason for me to keep living and I was suicidal at the end of my drinking. One day I was out walking alone, I didn't have faith, I wasn't religious, but something in me said I should ask for help. Into and out loud to no one, because it was just me, I said I don't know if anyone is there, but I need help. And that was the day I became sober. 15 years later, I found myself somehow standing in front of people as First Lady of North Dakota thanks to him.
[Laughter] Um, but I was asking people to share their stories openly about addiction so we could eliminate the shame and stigma, so more people would reach out for help and more lives could be saved. And today, I'm standing here in this incredibly beautiful Oval Office. And if not for the grace of God, I would not be alive today with over 23 years in recovery. That's why I'm here. And my message is simple, never give up hope for recovery. Mr. President, I also want to thank you for allowing me to stand here with you today. I was in this building in 2017 when the administration announced the national response to the opioid crisis. And nearly a decade later, the crisis remains.
And in many ways it has grown worse, not because we lacked compassion, not because we lack effort, but because we never fully aligned our system with the truth. Addiction is not a moral failure. It is not a character flaw. And it's not simply a behavioral issue. Addiction is a lifelong chronic relapsing medical disease as real as diabetes, cancer and heart disease. And when we fail to treat it as such, we don't treat the disease, and we pay mightily for the consequences. Emergency rooms, jails, foster care, overdose deaths and broken families. The Great American Recovery changes that. This initiative represents a fundamental shift from reaction to prevention, from fragmentation to coordination, from stigma to science, from short term fixes to long term recovery.
And for the first time, we're aligning federal leadership across health, justice, labor, housing, veterans, social services, the faith office and education around one single shared truth. When addiction is treated early and correctly, people recover -- recover and families heal. Addiction is a generational disease. And if we don't treat it properly, it repeats from parent to child, from community to community. And when we treat it like a lifelong condition, that -- the condition that it is, we stop that cycle. We save lives, we restore families, we rebuild communities, we return people to dignity, purpose and productivity.
Mr. President, thank you for seeing this moment clearly. With your leadership and the Great American Recovery Initiative, we're establishing a new framework and a new national response to the disease of addiction, including treatment and care that parallels other chronic diseases. With this framework and treatment, recovery is not the exception, it is the expectation. Thank you.
Trump: Thank you, Kathryn. You know, I saw them riding horses in a video and they said who is that? I was talking about her, not him. [Laughter] I explained it. I said I'm going to hire him because anybody has somebody like you to be with, it's an amazing tribute. [Laughter] And it's a great couple, amazing couple.
And she's very much a part of his big success. He was a fantastic success, as you know, having been one of the most successful businesspeople. And I saw him campaigning a great governor, two term governor. Uh, he was, uh, did a fantastic job in North Dakota. And uh, he's done a great job. And I'll tell you what, Kathryn's a very big part of it. I see it. It's just really one of the fantastic couples. So I appreciate it. What a beautiful job you've just done.
Burgum: Thank you, sir.
Trump: And I'm going to give this to you, and you can figure out what you're going to do with Bobby, you know. [Laughter] Uh, but let's -- let's have a good picture of the two of them and everyone else. And I'd like to ask Steve Witkoff also to say a couple of words when we're finished because uh, he has a very special person, uh, who I knew very well, uh, an incredible person. So if you don't mind, Steve, I'll ask you to do that in just a second. All right?
Steve Witkoff: Thank you.
Trump: Please, Bobby. Okay, thank you very much.
Burgum: Thank you, sir.
Trump: Thank you.
Burgum: Thank you.
Trump: Great job.
Burgum: Thank you so much.
Trump: Steve, please.
Witkoff: The President is doing the same thing to me now that he did to me in 2017. Do you remember Kathryn?
Burgum: Yeah, we were sitting next to each other.
Witkoff: Yeah.
Burgum: Yes.
Witkoff: So I -- um, I want to tell the story about this. So I came to the opioid, um, conference. And the President did not know I was coming because I was invited by the First Lady. And he leaned over and saw me in the aisle, and he looked at me and he said Steve and then he realized why I was there because I had lost my son, Andrew.
And the President was an incredible friend when I lost him. He -- I lived in his building at 502 Park Avenue. And I remember when him and the First lady came, and I talked about this all the time. And so he took my hand and he said to me come on up to the stage and tell the world about your boy, Andrew. And of course, that was, um, you know, something that was really meaningful to me, but um, and I got through it. And I talk about it all the time. I talked about it on the campaign trail and so forth. He is a very special man. And he's begun and led the fight against opioid addiction and alcoholism. And Kathryn, I feel like we sort of bonded from that -- from that day.
Burgum: Um-hum.
Witkoff: And it's just my blessing to work for you, sir.
Trump: There's a special guy.
Unidentified: [Inaudible] yes, he is.
Trump: He and a group of people, Jared helped and others helped, Steve. Peace in the Middle East. And we're there.
Witkoff: Yes.
Trump: A couple of little flames, but they're very little by comparison and they'll go out quickly. They're already going out. And he's now trying very hard to settle up with Russia and Ukraine. And I think a lot of progress is being made there, and I am told that Russia is not doing any shooting for a period of time during this horrendously cold weather.
Witkoff: Because of you. Because of you.
Trump: Well. So we -- uh, we asked President Putin if they could stop the shooting for a week. They're getting -- they're being hit with, uh, proportionately the kind of coal that we're being hit. It's much colder in Ukraine to start off with, but it's really cold now. And he agreed to do that. We appreciated that very much. It's a nasty war. It's a nasty, nasty war. Uh, would anybody else have anything to say? I can say that I am extremely late, but that's okay, don't worry about me. [Laughter] Would else have anything to say? Doug, you're doing a fantastic job, and we appreciate it.
Doug Collins: Thank you.
Trump: And Marty, you are really something special. Everyone's talking about you. Every time -- if I don't mention Marty, Bobby always mentions him, so. [Laughter] We have a great team. Jay, great. Marty, great. Do you guys want to say something?
Marty Makary: Thank you. Thank you. Well, historically, with addiction, the entire society has always been reactionary. And that's been the story of health care. But at the FDA, we are looking into incredible cutting edge therapeutics. And we are being proactive giving them vouchers when we see something that's promising to get an approval as quick as weeks in an era of a 10 to 12 year approval time. And the ultimate therapeutic is community, houses of worship, um, addressing loneliness. And so that's part of the Maha agenda, thanks to Bobby. So, thank you, Mr. President.
Trump: Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Jay?
Bhattacharya: Mr. President, in 2018, you launched the -- the HEAL Initiative, Helping to End Addiction Long-term at the NIH. It's paid through. It's -- it's yielded fruit. It -- they are -- the ingenuity of small business has developed products that can deal with pain without opioids. The -- he naloxone, which saves lives.
Trump: Right.
Bhattacharya: That was the fruit of NIH. And the kinds of investments that are your administration that you've made starting from 20 -- from the first Trump term to now, uh, will continue to pay -- pay dividends. The kind of research that -- that, uh, that the NIH is doing, uh, is -- is, uh, help turn the tide, make people's lives so much better, uh, restore families, um, all of the addiction that -- that we've seen, the 80,000 deaths we saw, uh, the huge spike in -- in -- in addiction deaths, you know, during the first Biden term was going to be a thing of the past and it -- and I'm so proud you for this.
Trump: And part of some great things happening, right?
Bhattacharya: Yeah.
Trump: Marty, great, really great things happening, I hear, and some pretty big announcements over a short period of time, right?
Makary: Yeah. Moving drugs over the counter, so you don't need a prescription.
Trump: Is that right?
Makary: Naloxone, which treats opioid, is one of those drugs. And we're being proactive with synthetic 70H, a new opioid that's showing up. And we're working with the DOJ on addressing that because chemists are coming up with new opioids faster than the government has been able to keep up. We're going proactive on these new chemicals.
Trump: That's great. No, I hear fantastic things. Thank you all very much. We really appreciate it a lot. Thank you. Oz, you're doing a fantastic job. Thank you all very much.
Unidentified: Thank you, Mr. President.
Trump: I appreciate it. Thank you. Please, thank you.
Note: [Crosstalk]
Aide: Thank you, press. Thank you for reporting. Thank you, press. Thank you for reporting.