Trump signs executive order on combating substance addiction 

President Trump signed an executive order aimed at combating drug addiction and substance abuse on Thursday, dubbing it “the Great American Recovery Initiative.” 

The initiative directs federal agencies to use grant funds to support addiction recovery and increase awareness surrounding addiction. The effort will also help agencies consolidate a number of programs including those pertaining to drug prevention, treatment and recovery support. 

“Now we’re taking a bold action to help Americans struggling with all forms of addiction so that they can get the help and the support they need so that they can free themselves from the horrible burden of dependency,” Trump said, speaking in the Oval Office. 

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Kathryn Burgum, who is married to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, joined Trump at the White House. Kathryn Burgum has been sober for 22 years. 

The signing also included Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz and the recently appointed White House drug czar, Sara Carter. Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, whose son died of a drug overdose, was also present, telling of his son’s story.

Trump has opened up in the past about his family’s connection to addiction. His brother, Fred Trump, died at the age of 42 because of a heart attack linked to alcohol addiction. 

“Many of those with me today have personally known the heartache of a loved one taken by drug or alcohol addiction. I do,” President Trump said.

During his first administration in 2019, Trump declared a commitment to ending the opioid crisis and spoke about his late brother. 

“I don’t know that I’d be working, devoting the kind of time and energy and even the money we are allocating to [the effort],” Trump told The Washington Post in an interview in 2019. “I don’t know that I’d be doing that had I not had the experience with Fred.”