Trump unleashes 'toughest fentanyl crackdown in history' as GOP vows 'consequences' for Chinese producers

"President Trump is leading the toughest fentanyl crackdown in American history - and it's going to save lives," Republican Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr told Fox News Digital. "While past Presidents like Joe Biden allowed adversaries to flood the U.S. with deadly fentanyl, President Trump is taking the fight directly to the drug cartels and their Chinese suppliers." 

Trump signed the NDAA into law Thursday, which includes provisions from Barr's legislation, H.R. 747. The provisions amend the existing Fentanyl Sanctions Act to expand the definition of "foreign opioid trafficker" to include Chinese entities and officials involved in the opioid industry who fail to stop trafficking. 

Under the provision, designated entities could face sweeping financial penalties and visa bans, which would effectively cut them off from the U.S. financial system. 

The defense spending budget comes the same week Trump signed a historic executive order declaring illicit fentanyl and its precursor chemicals as weapons of mass destruction. The order stated fentanyl is "closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic," noting that just two milligrams can kill someone. 

"Today, I'm taking another step to protect Americans from the scourge of deadly fentanyl flooding into our country," Trump said from the Oval Office Monday of the executive order. "With this historic executive order I'm signing today, we are formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction - because that's what it is."

Trump campaigned in-part on ending the flow of illicit drugs from foreign nations pouring into the nation, most notably fentanyl from China, as well as from South and Central America. 

"Our country is being poisoned from within by the drugs and by all the other crime that's taking place," Trump said in 2023 as the election heated up. "The drug cartels are waging war on America, and it's now time for America to wage war on the cartels." 

Since September, the administration has launched at least 28 strikes on suspected narco-trafficking boats from Venezuela. The administration has defended strikes, which have killed dozens of suspected drug criminals, on suspected narco-boats as protecting the U.S. from cartels looking to "poison Americans" with opioids. 

The defense budget was passed by a bipartisan vote in both the house and Senate, though left-wing lawmakers such as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont have railed against the bill. 

"We are spending $1 trillion every year on the military. That's more than the next NINE nations combined," Sanders said on X Thursday. "Meanwhile, millions lack health care & we have the highest childhood and senior poverty rate of almost any major country. Congress needs to get its priorities straight."

Fox News Digital's Alex Miller contributed to this report.