DR MARC SIEGEL Why Trump’s addiction recovery campaign should honor AA founders Bill W. and Dr. Bob
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I applaud President Trump’s Jan. 29 known as the Great American Recovery Initiative, but I think it should be renamed Bill W. and Dr. Bob Initiative, named after the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. Both men suffered from severe alcoholism until a fateful day in December 1934, when Bill Wilson experienced a spiritual awakening – described as a blinding white light – after asking God to reveal himself. Bill also described the feeling of standing on a mountain with the wind of the Spirit blowing on him, and he felt free at that moment, his drunkenness was over.
This conversion experience formed the basis of Bill W.’s spiritual transformation and recovery from alcoholism, and led to the basic 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous, which Bill W. co-founded in June 1935 with Dr. Robert Smith. Dr. Bob also had an alcohol problem, and Bill W. helped him quit. That June, Dr. Bob had taken his last drink. Together with Sister Ignatia, Dr. Bob helped spread his freedom from alcohol to others, providing medical care and physical guidance to thousands of alcoholics in Akron, Ohio, and across the country.
The reason why I believe that President Trump’s action can be called Bill W. and Dr. Bob Initiative is because, like AA, it recognizes the importance of community, health and faith. These components must be the main foundations of the program to be successful. The White House announcement says its mission is to “coordinate a national response to the disease of addiction across government, health care, faith communities and the private sector to save lives, restore families, strengthen our communities and build a Great American Recovery.”
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Trump’s move was soon followed this week by a $100 million HHS program called Safety Through Recovery, Engagement and Evidence-based Treatment and Supports (STREETS), which will focus on addiction, mental health, homelessness and crisis intervention.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during an announcement about mental health and addiction programs in Washington, DC, on Feb. 2, 2026. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
This is a much-needed initiative and I was pleased to see it led by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., himself a recovering heroin addict, and his cousin, former Representative Patrick Kennedy, a recovering alcoholic whom I interviewed and found to be a powerful and persuasive voice for recovery.
The reason why I believe that President Trump’s action can be called Bill W. and Dr. Bob Initiative is because, like AA, it recognizes the importance of community, health and faith.
Remember that denial is a major part of the problem for many addicts, and deep faith, along with imitation, is a critical way to overcome that denial. As the White House pointed out in its fact sheet, “48.4 million Americans, or 16.8% of our nation’s population, suffer from addiction, but very few need the treatment they receive or believe they need.”
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During President Trump’s first term, in 2019, when he declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency, he also acknowledged that his brother Fred had “a very, very difficult life” before succumbing to alcoholism and heart disease. Trump said the same thing to me when I interviewed him at the White House in July 2020, and I could see how deeply the loss affected him.
Trump’s heart is clearly in the right place when it comes to the current system — and he’s not alone. The announcement of the government’s new program to combat drug and alcohol addiction included Kathryn Burgum, former alcoholic and wife of Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, and the United States Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who told the story of his son dying from drugs during the event.
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Awareness is the highest goal, as well as acknowledging how difficult it is to stop addiction. The role of faith and the church must be emphasized, but so must the scientific tools that allow miraculous recovery – from buprenorphine, a partial opioid agonist, to naltrexone, an opioid antagonist that blocks both pleasure and craving. GLP-1 agonists also show promise in reducing alcohol and drug cravings and alcohol withdrawal, in part by delaying gastric emptying. Medically assisted treatment of opioids – particularly methadone, naltrexone and buprenorphine – has been shown to reduce opioid-related deaths by more than 50%.
As I wrote in my new book, “The Miracles Among Us,” so-called mild miracles come from a complex combination of science and faith.
All of these tools should be paid for, and the federal government should help make them more available. Indeed, every primary care physician like myself should have unlimited ability to prescribe these life-saving drugs, and every megachurch and synagogue should have a nationally funded program for drug and alcohol addiction.
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Addiction destroys not only individuals, but entire families and communities. Addiction recovery is a process that involves faith, access to quality health care and dedicated leaders who can deal with the problem.
Ninety years after Bill W. and Dr. Bob has started on the road to overcoming addiction, their caring, spiritual approach is more important than ever.
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