We thought the recommended addiction treatment protocol put forward by the Trump administration had already hit bottom: stop all funding, stop all research, stop all treatment, then incarcerate those who refuse to voluntarily get out of sight.

That is the recommended course of addiction treatment being championed by the current administration. They have cut off funding to research in progress, stalled funding to decades-long research studies, and withheld money from the states earmarked for overdose prevention and addiction treatment.

It’s one thing to say the administration is going to ignore the need for addiction treatment, refusing to even count the number of people affected. But it’s another thing to recommend incarcerating those who are unable to get with the (non)program. 

Involuntary confinement is a potential route for dealing with people who are a danger to themselves or to others. The issue of involuntary confinement or institutionalization is one that rattles every society in the world. When is it called for? Every legal system likely has a threshold beyond which people may be detained against their will.

But no nation that I know of uses “involuntary lethal injection” to deal with homelessness or drug addiction. That startling recommendation came on Sunday, September 14, from Fox News journalist Brian Kilmeade during a live, on-air discussion of addiction treatment in the United States. When co-host Lawrence Jones recommended incarcerating those who refuse treatment, Kilmeade, the host of Fox & Friends, added:

Or involuntary lethal injection, or something. Just kill them.

After Fox News attempted to hide the clip, screen captures went viral on TikTok and YouTube, forcing Kilmeade to issue a tepid apology later that day:

I wrongly said they should get lethal injections. I apologize for that extremely callous remark.

No apology for “Just kill them,” however, which followed Kilmeade’s line about “involuntary lethal injection.” No offer to resign or take a mental health leave of absence to learn anger management techniques or addiction treatment techniques, or both.

Nor have there been any condemnations of Kilmeade’s remarks issued from the White House as of this writing. No “tweets” or “truths” distancing the Trump administration’s policy from the “Just kill them” approach to addiction treatment and homelessness advocated by Kilmeade. No calls for Kilmeade to resign.

Next week, we are going to make an effort here at AddictionNews to make the free-market case for addiction treatment. We have covered this in bits and pieces here on the blog, but never in a comprehensive way. We will attempt to prove, for once and for all, that generous, compassionate addiction treatment is the least expensive, most effective way to handle serious substance use disorders.

People with an audience and staff as large as Kilmeade’s should be more aware of the true costs of addiction and the most effective ways to deal with it. People need to know that it costs more money to kill homeless drug addicts than to treat them or provide them with shelter.

The appearance of people sleeping in the doorways of businesses is not the sign of a lack of law enforcement; it’s a sign of a lack of social services. Law enforcement is expensive. Pushing people through legal processes to incarcerate them — let alone jailing them — is comparatively very expensive.

Killing them, by “involuntary lethal injection” or other means — such as cold weather, overdose, or an untreated medical condition — is also much more expensive than providing adequate social services in the first place. Like it or not, homelessness is a social problem, and the cheapest way to deal with it is generosity.

There is no financial advantage in exterminating the homeless, and there certainly are no moral grounds for it. The only reason to make such a remark is irrational hatred or intentional cruelty. That a person can make such an on-air remark in the richest country on Earth and remain in a position of high influence is an embarrassment.

Written by Steve O’Keefe. First published September 16, 2025.

Sources:

“‘Just Kill Them’: Fox News Anchor Brian Kilmeade Openly Calls for Execution of HOMELESS Americans,” DAHBOO77 on YouTube, September 14, 2025.

“Brian Kilmeade Issues Apology After Suggesting Mentally Ill Homeless People Should Be Given ‘Involuntary Lethal Injection’,” Hollywood Reporter, September 15, 2025.

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