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The Washington Post is being mocked online and by the White House for “pathetic” reporting on what the liberal-leaning news outlet calls a “mysterious” decline in fentanyl flowing across the border.
Fentanyl is a dangerous drug that is often trafficked into the United States across the southern and northern borders by cartels and other criminal elements. In 2024, fentanyl was linked to the death of 48,422 persons in the United States, according to the CDC.
During his campaign, President Donald Trump vowed to wage a war against fentanyl traffickers through increased border security and by cracking down on illegal immigration. Since taking office, Trump has deployed U.S. troops to the southern border, targeted cartels and transnational criminal groups as “foreign terrorist organizations” and hit cartel leaders with sanctions.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), the U.S. law enforcement seizures of fentanyl, which the group explains is a “key indicator of broader total smuggling at and between the southern border’s ports of entry,” have dropped 50% since the November election. CIS states that this significant decline indicates a “greater decline in total fentanyl smuggling.”
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The Washington Post reports on this decline, stating that U.S. seizures at the southern border are down by almost 30 percent compared with the same period in 2024. The outlet, however, states that the drop “represents something of a mystery.”
“After years of confiscating rising amounts of fentanyl, the opioid that has fueled the most lethal drug epidemic in American history, U.S. officials are confronting a new and puzzling reality at the Mexican border. Fentanyl seizures are plummeting,” wrote the Post.
Among the possible reasons listed by the outlet are cartels finding other ways to smuggle the drug into the U.S., cartel internal strife, ingredient shortages and a possible decline in demand.
Though baffled by the reason for the decline, The Washington Post posited that “public health authorities are concerned that the Trump administration’s budget cuts could hurt programs that have promoted overdose antidotes and addiction treatment.”
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The article was widely mocked by conservatives online.
Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., commented on X, “The Washington Post is reporting a ‘mysterious drop’ in fentanyl seizures at the southern border. Mystery solved! The Trump effect is working.”
Charlie Kirk, a popular conservative influencer, also commented, saying: “Four months into the Trump administration, The Washington Post is marveling at the ‘mysterious’ drop in fentanyl seizures on the Mexican border … Is the Post simply lying, or are their reporters as dumb as the people they’re writing propaganda for?”
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The Department of Homeland Security’s official X account also replied, commenting: “It’s no mystery. On day one, [President] Trump closed our borders to drug traffickers.”
DHS said that “from March 2024 to March 2025 fentanyl traffic at the southern border fell by 54%.”
“The world has heard the message loud and clear,” said DHS.
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Several top White House spokespersons also weighed in. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt simply called the Post “pathetic,” and White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said: “They can’t stand that President Trump’s strong border policies have led to a DECREASE in fentanyl coming into the U.S.”
Abigail Jackson, another White House spokeswoman, told Fox News Digital that “the drop in fentanyl seizures at the border is only a mystery to Washington Post reporters suffering from Trump-Derangement Syndrome.”
“As of March, fentanyl traffic at the Southern Border had fallen by more than half from the same time last year – while Joe Biden’s open border was still terrorizing America,” said Jackson. “Everyone else knows the simple truth: President Trump closed our border to illegal drug traffickers and Americans are safer because of it.”
The Washington Post did not immediately respond to a request by Fox News Digital for comment.
