Patel Details Talks With China to Stop Deadly Drugs Flowing Into U.S. [WATCH]

“Trump got it done.”

FBI Director Kash Patel spoke with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo over the weekend about President Donald Trump’s push to engage China in the fentanyl crackdown.

“Look, we set this in motion — we under President Trump’s leadership and strong leadership — in engaging [Chinese] President Xi Jinping on the fentanyl crisis,” Patel said. “Let’s just put this in perspective: the prior administration, the Biden administration, allowed hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Americans to be killed by opiates alone. That is a national security crisis of epic proportions.”

“President Trump comes in, engages his counterpart, Xi Jinping, and says, ‘We’ve got to address this.’ Puts Attorney General Pam Bondi and the DOJ [Department of Justice] in motion, sets up engagements over the last eight to nine months, and designates the FBI director to go there and make sure this deal is solidified. And that is the reason that I, as the first director in 10 years, landed in Beijing, China,” Patel continued.

“This opioid crisis is going to be turned off. Americans are no longer going to lose their life to manufactured synthetic opioids like fentanyl,” the FBI chief said.

More than 70,000 Americans died from synthetic opioids in both 2022 and 2023, primarily driven by fentanyl overdoses, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Unintentional injuries — a category dominated by drug overdoses and poisonings — remained the leading cause of death for Americans under 45 in 2023, CDC data shows.

“Where else is China interfering? What do we need to understand best about our number one adversary?” Bartiromo asked Patel.

“Look, we can talk about the espionage and other activities, but we have taken a huge step here. No one has bothered to engage China. The Biden administration didn’t even do it. And fentanyl … it’s not like cocaine or marijuana where it starts naturally in a growhouse or grow facility or grow yards and then is produced into an ultimate chemical and drug. Fentanyl is purely chemically created,” Patel explained.

“If you take the ingredients, these precursors … and you shut off their flow, then the Mexican drug cartels cannot make it. It’s that simple. And Biden could have listed one or two or three of the precursors — zero. Trump got it done listing all 13 precursors and restricting all seven chemicals, essentially shutting off the pipeline that allows the Mexican drug traffickers to create fentanyl,” Patel continued. “And we went there and we got the agreement solidified, and it’s already in place. And we’re going see immediate results and immediate American lives saved by the hundreds of thousands.

Watch the clip below:

A full update with @MariaBartiromo on China’s fentanyl commitments, our ongoing investigations, and the steps we’re taking to keep Americans safe.

Under President Trump’s leadership, we’re delivering results that protect the American people. pic.twitter.com/PIgaEPcf2t

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) November 16, 2025