President Trump comforts mother whose son died of fentanyl poisoning: 'Up there watching you'

Trump highlighted the profound impact of fentanyl poisoning on U.S. citizens, saying during his speech that "more Americans died from fentanyl last year than died in the Korean War, or the Iraq War or the Afghanistan War. All of them combined."

Stepping aside for a few moments, the president called to the stage Anne Fundner, an anti-drug activist and mother who lost her son - Weston - to fentanyl poisoning, to speak about how the deadly drug is hurting Americans.

In a heartfelt moment caught on the microphone, Trump leaned in to hug Fundner and said, "He's up there watching you. He's so proud of mom.

"I just said to Anne, 'Weston is up in heaven watching his mom, and he's so proud of you, he's so proud of you," Trump said afterward.

Turning to the crowd, Trump also addressed a group of parents who also lost children to fentanyl, saying, "We want to acknowledge you and also, your daughters, your sons, they're looking down on you, and they're loving you like crazy."

"And that's just the beginning," he said. "At my direction and working with Pam and everybody else, we've launched an all-out war on fentanyl traffickers. And it's a war that we're going to win. We're going to win this war."

"Wherever you have the death penalty, you don't have drugs," he said. "But I just don't know if this country is ready for it. So, I tell people and it's always an option."

"This department will not rest until we have ended the fentanyl epidemic in America once and for all," Trump said on Friday.   

In addition to taking action against the cartels, Trump said his administration would soon be launching a series of ads to emphasize the negative effects of drug use in an attempt to lessen the widespread deaths across the U.S.