Fact Checker: President Trump’s claim that a wall will ‘stop much of the drugs from pouring into this country’

President Trump's claim that a wall will 'stop much of the drugs from pouring into this country' One of President Trump's signature campaign promises was building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to stem illegal immigration. Increasingly, the president has argued that the wall will not only block illegal immigrants but also will stem the …   Democracy Dies in Darkness     The truth behind the rhetoric   President Trump's claim that a wall will 'stop much of the drugs from pouring into this country' One of President Trump's signature campaign promises was building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to stem illegal immigration. Increasingly, the president has argued that the wall will not only block illegal immigrants but also will stem the flow of drugs coming into the United States from Mexico. Trump repeats this idea often. During rallies. At news conferences. On Twitter. But there's a big problem with this narrative: The majority of the illicit drugs enter the United States through legal ports of entry, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency. Traffickers conceal the drugs in hidden compartments within passenger cars or hide them alongside other legal cargo in tractor trailers and drive the illicit substances right into the United States. Many drugs are also smuggled through elaborately built subterranean tunnels that start in Mexico and end inside of stash houses in the United States, according to the report. Trump's wall proposal neither addresses the reality of drug trafficking into the United States nor key facts of the nation's drug crisis. In 2014, prescription drugs killed more than twice as many people as heroin and almost five times as many people as cocaine, according the Centers for Disease Control and the National Center for Health Statistics. Unlike cocaine and heroin, prescription drugs are not as widely trafficked from Mexico. The president claims his wall would stop much of the drugs from entering the country, but that's simply a fantasy based on no facts. He earned Four Pinocchios. (giphy.com) Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this e-mail was forwarded to you, sign up here for the weekly newsletter. Hear something fact-checkable? Send it here, we’ll check it out. As the death toll climbs in Sudan, officials shy away from the 'cholera' label The State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development are related agencies, both reporting to the secretary of state, but there is an odd disconnect in how they have described a looming public health emergency in the African country of Sudan. The embassy declared that there were "confirmed reports" of cholera that have killed people, whereas USAID, citing the World Health Organization and the Sudanese government, said there were cases of "acute watery diarrhea," known in medical circles as AWD. ADVERTISEMENT   What's going on? There's a cholera crisis in Sudan but the government refuses to admit it, wary of international embarrassment about its crumbling health infrastructure. In fact, the government in Khartoum has actively sought to prevent hospitals, doctors and journalists from reporting that there is a cholera outbreak. The Sudanese health ministry even fired a hospital director who dared to publicly say it was treating cholera cases — and intimidated a group of volunteers who had set up an awareness campaign on how to prevent the spread of cholera in the area. The WHO insists it has not received any lab results that confirm the cholera deaths. But when WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was health minister of Ethiopia, he was accused of covering up cholera outbreaks by labeling it as AWD to avoid harming the country's tourism industry. Tests by the United Nations confirmed it was cholera that had led to 60,000 infections and more than 600 deaths. Now, in Sudan, as many as 800 people may have died from the outbreak. The Pinocchios we gave were mainly for the Sudanese government, which refuses to admit an apparent cholera outbreak, but WHO and USAID should not escape blame either. (giphy.com) We’re always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can also reach us via email, Twitter (@myhlee, @GlennKesslerWP, @mmkelly22, @nikki_lew or use #FactCheckThis), or Facebook (Fact Checker or myhlee). Read about our rating scale here, and sign up here for our weekly Fact Checker newsletter. Scroll down for this week’s Pinocchio roundup. — Glenn Kessler Did James Comey violate federal laws? We dig into the White House's rationale for suggesting that the fired FBI director violated federal laws. By Glenn Kessler  •  Read more »   As the death toll climbs in Sudan, officials shy away from the ‘cholera’ label The U.S. Embassy says people are dying from cholera, but WHO, USAID and Sudan's leaders hide behind a more benign-sounding phrase. By Glenn Kessler  •  Read more »   President Trump's claim foreign leaders told him they're unhappy with 7-9 percent GDP growth Trump keeps referencing conversations with two world leaders, but there's only one who could possibly have bragging rights. By Nicole Lewis  •  Read more »   The House Republicans’ claim they have ‘passed more bills’ than recent first-year presidencies House Republicans say they have passed more bills than any recent Congress. But passing bills is not the same as bills signed into law. By Glenn Kessler  •  Read more »   President Trump's claim that a wall will ‘stop much of the drugs from pouring into this country’ Trump wants the wall to stop drugs from entering the United States, but the majority of drugs are smuggled through legal ports of entry. By Nicole Lewis  •  Read more »   ADVERTISEMENT   Recommended for you   The Energy 202 Your daily guide to the energy and environment debate. 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