Many big right wing accounts on X recently started spreading a peculiar graph. The graph shows monthly fentanyl deaths in the US from around 2012 up to the latest known data point at the time of printing in early 2025, and originated in the New York Times. The way it is framed suggests fentanyl deaths skyrocketed under Biden, and are now plummeting under Trump. But is it, really?

That’s a rehtorical question. If an administration known for virtually non-stop lying, plus their most infamous and blatantly dishonest propaganda outlets on X such as ‘End Wokeness’ start promoting a pro-Trump, anti-leftist message, you better check sources. Never be gullible around these people on any level.

Thanks Biden?

The first big clue is the fact that the carefully removed date for the latest data point is september of 2024. Who was president at that time? Joe Biden. So the “cratering” was during his term, not Trump’s. Moving the goalposts, the argument then becomes well ok, Biden brought it down, but him and his leftist communist cronies also opened the border for the US to be flooded by the drugs in the first place.

But that argument also doesn’t work, because if you carefully plot the terms of Trump and Biden, it is pretty clear that the rise in deaths accelerated tremendously during Trump 1. Under Biden it rose some more before stabilizing, then plummeting from early 2024 onwards. Omitting data and misreading a basic chart such as this one is pretty revealing to say the least.

Of course, when confronted with this reality, the reaction from these channels and figures has largely been to ignore or even remove and move on. This isn’t about celebrating the decline in people dying, it is the outrage machine doing its work, and people that care only about a message, being right, or ‘owning the libs‘.

Let’s be very clear though

In politics, in the US and elsewhere, a common schtick is: Something good happens? That’s our administration’s doing. Something bad happens? That’s the mess the previous admin left us with!. The left is certainly not immune to this, but the right has absolutely perfected this trick to play fast and loose with the truth in their messaging. Even going so far as to hold two contradictory views on “Who’s economy is this really?” at the same time.

The point of this post is then also not that Biden did a fantastic job on fentanyl deaths. I honestly have not looked into it that much, and can even say that a little bit of information on why less people are dying – because of overdose kits – means the underlying problem of the drugs themselves is not being solved here. In most cases like these, unless you can point to very specific measures and their effects, issues tend to be more complex than just who’s in office. The point is about the hypocrisy.