Trump won election four years ago thanks in part to support from US citizens whose communities & lives had been ravaged by opioid addiction, a public-health crisis of epic magnitude Trump promised he’d fix as president.

Instead, he took half measures, then failed to fund them fully. Despite declaring the opioid crisis a public health emergency in October 2017, Trump never fully used powers that declaration gave him, such as allowing broader use of telemedicine or sending federal staff to aid local health officials.

When overdose passings decreased for the first time in almost 3 decades in 2018, falling 4% from 70,327 to 69K between 2017 & 2018, administration officials declared a win. President touted the tremendous amount of progress he’d made battling opioid addiction.

President’s worst misstep in fighting the opioid crisis is his own cruel & relentless war against the Affordable Care Act, which expanded state-level Medicaid programs that now fund a quarter of all substance abuse treatment in the United States. If Obamacare is repealed or struck down, it will accelerate the crisis president promised, and failed, to fix.