Critics raised eyebrows — and questions about basic math — after Attorney General Pam Bondi made a dubious claim during a Cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Bondi boasted to Trump that 3,400 kilos of fentanyl had been seized “since you’ve been here last 100 days,” and then added: “which saved — are you ready for this, media? — 258 million lives.”
The comment immediately drew attention.
With the U.S. population currently estimated at 346 million, Bondi appeared to suggest that Trump had saved around 75% of all Americans.
Adding to the confusion, Bondi had posted on social media just the day before that the administration had saved 119 million lives — less than half her Wednesday figure.
Critics on social media and in the press mocked the shifting numbers and asked how Bondi arrived at such inflated estimates.