The Daily Populous Monday September 15th, 2025 evening edition
Authored by huffpost.com and submitted by jpurdy

President Donald Trump on Sunday tried to justify the fatal U.S. strike on a Venezuelan boat by claiming that 300 million people, presumably Americans, died from drugs last year.

He was off by almost 300 million.

Earlier this month, Trump ordered the military to blow up a Venezuelan boat suspected of carrying drugs to the United States, killing 11.

The move drew criticism on both sides of the aisle.

“I think probably that we had the facts correct, we got bad people here, but … it isn’t our policy just to blow people up,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said after the attack.

Trump was asked about allegations that the attack was illegal on Sunday.

“What’s illegal are the drugs that were on the boat, and the drugs that are being sent into our country, and the fact that 300 million people died last year from drugs, that’s what’s illegal,” Trump said.

Trump has a tendency to seemingly pull numbers out of thin air, often wildly exaggerating them based on his needs at any given moment. Over the summer, for example, he claimed he was cutting prescription drug prices by 1,500%, which ― if true ― would bring prices down to negative numbers.

His latest claim faces a similar problem: For him to be correct, most of the U.S population ― currently about 340 million ― would be dead.

The CDC estimates that about 75,000 people died from drug overdoses over the past year. That’s a decline from recent years past; More than 110,000 died in 2023, but the number has never approached the totals Trump claimed.

Globally, some 600,000 people die each year from drug use, according to the World Health Organization, or 0.2% of the number Trump claimed.

Trump’s critics offered a math lesson on X:

Wow holy shit so only like 40 million people alive in America now? https://t.co/cWBUFEopnh — Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) September 14, 2025

Last year, the US population was 340 million people. Based on my admittedly anecdotal evidence, most of y’all are still here. https://t.co/z231dkARSy — Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) September 14, 2025

So pretty much all of the US? Wow. Are we zombies? Or did we all die, and this is really hell? — The Great Gig in the Sky (@thegreatgig8) September 15, 2025

The great thing about Labor Day weekend when we didn't hear from him is we had a pleasant respite from hearing him say idiotic things. https://t.co/6ReDesHgTV — George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 (@gtconway3d) September 15, 2025

He’s wrong. It’s a billion gazillion people. https://t.co/i9jCtm9XMA — Ben Meiselas (@meiselasb) September 14, 2025

I think we might have to consider the possibility that the President of the USA has no idea what he is talking about. https://t.co/cOw32xsDse — Thomas Juneau (@thomasjuneau) September 14, 2025

Almost the entire US population died from drugs last year!!!!

Someone who loves this man needs to get him the help he needs. https://t.co/W399a2nJUp — Eric Garcia for Congress (@EricG1247) September 15, 2025

300 million people died last year from drugs?

The population of the United States is roughly 330 million. I presume even he isn't crazy enough to mean deaths from drugs in the United States.

If we're talking worldwide, the WHO puts the… https://t.co/cn36ke8jFk — Andrew Coyne 🇺🇦🇮🇱🇬🇪🇲🇩 (@acoyne) September 14, 2025

One of the most dangerous issues we have to deal with as a nation is that Trump and his regime lie about literally every single thing https://t.co/9EiwPU8ZDj — MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) September 14, 2025

I didn’t realize it but most of us might be dead already! https://t.co/NMj2qYr4Il — Athanassios Diplas (@AthanaDiplas) September 14, 2025

The population of the US is 340m people. Trump thinks it’s a “fact that 300m people died last year from drugs.” (That would be 88% of the US population dying from drugs in the past year.)

So is bad math his justification for his actions? https://t.co/5DfaE86kCS — Barbara Comstock (@BarbaraComstock) September 15, 2025

Is he serious? Like that would be 90 percent of the US population dead if what he said was true. We all know it was less than that! He is lying yet again! — Emre Yurttas (@emrey35) September 14, 2025

If 300 million Americans had died from drugs last year, about 9 out of every 10 Americans would be dead.

The actual number of American deaths from overdose last year, according to the CDC, was 80,000 — still terribly high, but nothing like what the president said. https://t.co/ldarDphqFQ — Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) September 14, 2025

thanks to drugs Canada is now the largest country in North America https://t.co/8c9NDhXqzK — no longer respecting gardenias (@NLRG_it) September 15, 2025

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Breaking: Every American has died of drug overdoses — Good To Go Joe (@GoodToGoJoe1142) September 14, 2025

specqq on September 15th, 2025 at 12:15 UTC »

There go all the 258 million that Pam Bondi claimed he saved from dying from fentanyl overdoses. So sad to have been saved so heroically only to die so senselessly.

RIP Imaginary Americans. You deserved better.

sthlmsoul on September 15th, 2025 at 12:12 UTC »

300 million dead last year? That would explain why Trump think we don't have a country anymore, right?

RayneSexton on September 15th, 2025 at 12:09 UTC »

Trump raped children

Trump is a convicted felon

Trump is a pedophile

Trump is a rapist