00:00But there's no doubt that America's adversaries are trafficking fentanyl into the United States in part because they want to kill Americans.
00:08If this were a war, that would be one of the worst wars. I believe they killed, over the last five or six years, per year, 200 to 300,000 people.
00:19You hear about 100,000, which is a lot of people, but the number is much higher than that. That's been proven.
00:24And they've destroyed a lot of families because when they lose a child or even if their child is heavily addicted, you lose that family.
00:32The family will never be the same. That's why today I'm taking one more step to protect Americans from the scourge of deadly fentanyl flooding into our country.
00:42With this historic executive order I will sign today, we're formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, which is what it is.
00:52No bomb does what this is doing. 200,000 to 300,000 people die every year that we know of.
01:01So we're formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
01:08It has been one team, one mission to get 100% operational control of the southern border.
01:14You want to talk about America first, peace through strength and common sense?
01:17It all manifests in one basic phrase down there. Border security is national security.
01:24And we had the task of 100% control. And because of these men and women back here, we've achieved that.
01:29Nobody is crossing the southern border. And I want to give a big shout out to our northern command, General Gio.
01:35From day one, our department didn't look at the border this way before you.
01:40Joe Biden allowed an invasion of this country. Tens of millions of people, drugs, gangs, violence.
01:46And the military jumped to it on day one with our partners.
01:50But ultimately, it was incredible Americans. There's 13 up here with us today.
01:54They all represent about 2,000 people who've served at the border so far.
01:57So 25,000 Americans qualify for this Mexican National Defense Border Medal that we're announcing today.
02:05And what's cool about this medal, it was actually first given out in 1918.
02:09So we're reviving an old medal that existed, was given to men and women who defended the southern border.
02:14We found out about it. We used the exact same foundry with the exact same imagery, same color, same medal, same everything.
02:21So our men and women will be wearing that very same medal as Americans 100 years before who were asked to defend the sovereignty of our country.
02:28President Trump was elected to do that. You have done that, Mr. President.
02:31We're proud of this mission. We're proud to defend the American people.
02:34And pinning these medals on is an example of how important it is to us.
02:37So thank you, Mr. President. Appreciate it.
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