The DOJ Says Trump Has Saved 258 Million Lives. I Asked Them What That's Based On.
Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.
Have all the people who “disapprove” of President Donald Trump considered that if he weren't president, there's a good chance they would have died in the past 100 days?
This is the message from the Justice Department, as Attorney General Pam Bondi has spent the week sharing some remarkable statistics.
Tuesday was Fentanyl Awareness Day. To mark the occasion , Bondi visited a Drug Enforcement Administration lab in northern Virginia where researchers are studying cartel tactics to traffic drugs across the border. In an
Bondi's claim that Trump had saved the lives of 1 in 3 Americans in his first 100 days was met with some skepticism. Dare we say, some rascals even made fun of her over it.
Bondi took the criticism not as a call to clarify what she meant, but as a challenge to go bigger. And there's no better opportunity to go big than a televised presidential Cabinet meeting, during which the president enjoys hearing large numbers reflecting well on his performance. Even by Trump Cabinet meeting standards, Bondi came out hot.
“Mr. President,” she said, “your first 100 days has far exceeded that of any other presidency in the country, ever. Ever. Never seen anything like it.” Then it was time for some stats.
“Since you have been in office, President Trump, your DOJ agencies have seized more than 22 million fentanyl pills, 3,400 kilos of fentanyl, which saved—are you ready for this, media?—258 million lives.” Yes, she turned to the camera for the aside to the media.
As a member of the media, I confess I was not ready for this—the claim that, in its first 100 days, the Trump Justice Department had saved the lives of three-fourths of the country. So I asked the department how it had arrived at this figure.
A spokesperson for the DOJ responded with the following math:
1 kg of fentanyl * .1518 (current purity level) * 1000 (to convert to grams) / by .002 (amount needed for a deadly dose) = lethal dose of fentanyl
So, 3,400 Kg of fentanyl seized in Trump's first 100 days
3400*.1518
*1000
/.002
=258,060,000 deadly doses
We stared at this for a long while and reached an unavoidable conclusion: Yep, that's math, all right. As for the overnight uptick from 119 million to 258 million lives saved, the spokesperson said that the 119 million figure “was in reference to statistics that did not include FBI seizures, just the DEA's.”
There are follow-up questions to be had here. Is the “purity level” consistent across these many kilos? Is this dose level “fatal” to all people equally? Most important: How would 258 million fatal doses be distributed, one per person, to 258 million people, within 100 days, as would have presumably happened if Trump were not president?
But today, we're just grateful to be alive.
Sign up for Slate's evening newsletter.
