Overview

• Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed that fentanyl pill seizures under the Trump administration saved 258 million lives, a figure widely criticized as mathematically implausible.
• Bondi’s estimates escalated over days, starting with 21 million lives saved, then 119 million, before reaching 258 million during a Cabinet meeting on May 1.
• The Daily Show’s Michael Kosta mocked Bondi’s claims, pointing out their statistical impossibility and jokingly questioning her credibility.
• Experts highlighted that the U.S. records approximately 70,000 fentanyl-related deaths annually, making Bondi's figures unrealistic and misleading.
• Critics warn that such exaggerated rhetoric undermines evidence-based approaches to addressing the opioid crisis and distracts from meaningful policy solutions.