China, in his words · First term · № 47

On China

Called fentanyl shipments from China "almost a form of warfare"

“But, in China, you have some pretty big companies sending that garbage and killing our people. It's almost a form of warfare.”
Said
, Remarks at a Cabinet meeting, the White House
Subject
fentanyl
Threat
Other
Topic
Other
Era
First term

What the record showed

On December 5, 2018, after meeting Xi Jinping in Argentina, Trump tweeted that Xi had promised to criminalize the sale of fentanyl and that this "could be a game changer." On August 1, 2019, he tweeted that Xi "said that he would stop the sale of Fentanyl to the United States – this never happened." China placed fentanyl-related substances under class-wide control in 2019, which the Congressional Research Service says curtailed almost all direct shipments from China to the United States; production of U.S.-bound fentanyl then concentrated in Mexico, with China a primary source of precursor chemicals.

Sources

  1. Remarks at a Cabinet Meeting The American Presidency Project, Aug 16, 2018
  2. Tweet: 'One of the very exciting things to come out of my meeting with President Xi of China is his promise to me to criminalize the sale of deadly Fentanyl' Twitter (@realDonaldTrump), Dec 5, 2018
  3. Tweet: '...my friend President Xi said that he would stop the sale of Fentanyl to the United States – this never happened' Twitter (@realDonaldTrump), Aug 1, 2019
  4. China Primer: Illicit Fentanyl and China's Role Congressional Research Service (via EveryCRSReport.com), Jun 1, 2026