See what President Trump is doing to defend and protect America’s veterans

“Thank you, America’s loudest, toughest patriots,” President Donald J. Trump told veterans this afternoon in Kentucky. “We love our veterans . . . You are special people.”

President Trump addressed the American Veterans 75th National Convention today, an event that coincides with his latest action to protect our heroes in uniform. Just hours ago, the President signed a memorandum that ensures permanently disabled veterans obtain the federal student loan debt discharges to which they are entitled.

Only half of the roughly 50,000 disabled veterans who are qualified to have these loans discharged have received this hard-earned benefit. Fortunately, that will soon change.

President Trump: Thank you for honoring our heroes and great American flag!

America’s veterans should never have to go the extra mile to receive the benefits and services they are rightfully owed for their sacrifice. These brave men and women proudly served our nation. Now, it’s time for our government to serve them fairly, as well.

President Trump has worked since his Inauguration Day to reform the federal bureaucracy, making it more responsive to veterans’ needs and less fixated on its own interests. In 2017, he signed the Forever GI Bill into law, allowing individuals to access their veteran educational benefits at any point in during their lifetimes.

Also in 2017, he signed the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act into law, making it easier to hold failing VA employees accountable for their actions. Since then, the VA has fired more than 7,600 employees who have failed our veterans. Even more important, it has instituted reforms to increase efficiency and decrease abuse.

As a result, VA healthcare today is significantly better than when President Trump was elected, with trust in VA outpatient healthcare now close to 90 percent.

The story of the American veteran—the “American warrior,” as President Trump says—is “the story of the American nation. You have written our history, shaped our identity, forged our destiny, marched us to glory, and always planted the righteous flag of American victory,” he said today.

“You have filled our enemies with dread. You have filled our friends with hope. And you have filled our American heart with fierce patriotic pride. Because of you, America is safe.”

See what President Trump is doing to defend and protect America’s veterans.

Watch: Thanks to you, veterans, America is the mightiest nation on Earth!

America cracks down on powerful drug fentanyl

Today, the Trump Administration announced new actions to crack down on international fentanyl trafficking and protect the American homeland from this horribly lethal drug.

“Deadly synthetic opioids like fentanyl continue to take the lives of tens of thousands of Americans every year,” White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Jim Carroll said. “To reverse this trend, we are cracking down on drug traffickers more than ever before.”

Even as drug overdose deaths are declining for the first time in nearly 30 years, a flood of fatal fentanyl is washing over America, Senior Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway said. “Last year alone, federal agents seized enough fentanyl to kill every American man, woman, and child four times.”

President Trump is giving American law enforcement more tools than ever before to cut off these illegal drug supplies and protect our communities from these monsters.

This morning, for example, the Treasury Department announced it has identified two Chinese nationals and a China-based Drug Trafficking Organization as significant foreign narcotics traffickers pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.

White House announces actions to crack down on fentanyl trafficking.

See America’s stories: How the “crisis next door” affects each of us