At a White House press briefing on Thursday, officials praised President Donald Trump’s “extreme generosity” as they announced that he would be donating his third-quarter salary to help combat the opioid crisis—but critics raised questions about the gesture amid the scope of the epidemic as well as the president’s agenda which has shown little concern for generosity towards Americans who are most in need.
Trump’s quarterly salary amounts to $100,000. According to experts on the opioid epidemic, which killed 64,000 Americans in 2016, about $190 billion over the next decade would be needed to make a significant impact on the medical needs of those impacted by the prevalence of heroin, prescription painkillers, and synthetic opioids.
Acting Health and Human Services Secretary Eric Hargan said Trump’s salary would be donated “to the planning and design of a large-scale public awareness campaign about the dangers of opioid addiction,” adding, “It’s his compassion above all that drives his interest to the issue to which HHS is going to devote his donation: America’s devastating opioid crisis.”
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