U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday accused China of routing fentanyl shipments through Venezuela to evade American and Mexican port controls, vowing to raise the issue directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their upcoming meeting in South Korea.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said his first question to Xi at the October 30 meeting in Busan would be about China’s alleged involvement in the fentanyl trade.
“I’m meeting with President Xi… The first question I’m going to ask him about is fentanyl,” Trump said. “They make $100 million selling fentanyl into our country. They lose $100 billion with the 20% tariff. So it’s not a good business proposition… They pay a very big penalty for doing that.”
The meeting between Trump and Xi on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit will mark their first in-person encounter since the 2019 G20 Summit in Japan. It comes amid rising trade tensions, with Washington poised to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese imports just days after the summit.
Responding to a reporter’s question on whether China was channelling fentanyl through Venezuela, Trump said, “They are doing that. But they are paying a 20% tariff right now because of fentanyl. That’s billions and billions of dollars. On November 1st, the tariff on China rises to 157%, a record-setting level. It’s not sustainable for them.”
Trump also said he plans to notify Congress of his intention to expand U.S. military operations against Venezuelan drug cartels, moving beyond maritime interdictions to possible land-based strikes. “We’re going to go [to Congress]. I don’t see any loss in going—no reason not to,” he said, referencing his administration’s month-long crackdown that has led to over 3,200 cartel arrests.
Turning to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth during the briefing, Trump added, “I’d like just to tell you, ‘Let’s go.’ We’re going to tell them what we’re going to do, and I think they’re probably going to like it—except for the radical left lunatics.”
The president suggested he might bypass a formal declaration of war, emphasizing a more direct approach: “I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just going to kill people who are bringing drugs into our country. Okay? We’re going to kill them… they’re going to be like dead, okay?”
Trump said his anti-cartel offensive, coupled with his meeting with Xi, would accelerate a reduction in U.S. overdose deaths, which he claimed had peaked during former President Joe Biden’s tenure. Federal data shows fentanyl has caused nearly 330,000 deaths in the past five years.
According to Trump, Chinese manufacturers are now channelling fentanyl through Venezuela to bypass tougher American and Mexican port security measures — a tactic he said the U.S. intends to “shut down completely.”
