One of President Trump’s campaign promises, which likely sealed wins during the primaries and general election, was to fight the opioid crisis. Like many issues on his agenda, combating opioid addiction in states like Ohio and New Hampshire has stalled because of scandals in multiple federal agencies, Congress, and the White House. However, with the administration prepared to announce a public health emergency without designated funding, it’s unknown how effective this measure will be.
In an interview with GQ, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who also heads the Trump administration’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioids Crisis, spoke about his efforts to solve the opioid crisis in his home state and at a national level. In a stunning moment, Christie details how he may have successfully pushed Trump to talk about the issue — by slashing the length of a report so that Trump would actually read it:
“I remember when I was doing debate prep with [Trump in the general election] and people would come in with binders that were like five or six inches thick, and I’d look at them and say, ‘That’s going to be the most exquisite coaster at Mar-a-Lago,’ because he’s not going to read all that stuff … That’s not the way he takes in information. He’s much more of a, give him a short bit of writing and then verbally talk to him. And that’s what we did on the report … I wrote the report for him. It’s not like a white paper that is 80 pages that he wouldn’t look at. I knew who my audience was.”
With Trump prepared to reveal his opioid plans on Thursday afternoon, we’ll soon find out how much he values Christie’s input,