President Donald Trump has vowed to donate his entire annual salary of $400,000 while he is in office. | Kevin Dietsch/Pool/Getty Images Trump donates third-quarter salary to HHS opioid efforts

President Donald Trump has donated his third-quarter presidential salary to the Department of Health and Human Services’ efforts to combat the opioid crisis, the department and the White House announced Thursday.

“His decision to donate his salary is a tribute to this compassion, to his patriotism and his sense of duty to the American people,” acting HHS secretary Eric Hargan said during the White House daily press briefing on Thursday.


Hargan praised the president’s efforts to “drive action” in the ongoing battle to grapple with the nation’s opioid epidemic, including his October decision to declare the crisis a national health emergency.

Despite Trump's earlier promises to spend "a lot of money" on the crisis, that emergency declaration didn't include new funding to fight an epidemic that killed more than 33,000 Americans in 2015. Public health experts say billions of dollars in additional funding toward prevention and treatment measures is needed to reverse a problem that's worsening.

Hargan said the funds from the president's earnings will go toward the creation and implementation of a "large-scale public awareness campaign about the dangers of opioid addiction."

President Trump has vowed to donate his entire annual salary of $400,000 while he is in office.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced his second-quarter salary donation to the Department of Education in July.

His first quarter earnings were donated to the National Park Service.

How can we solve the opioid crisis? Sarah Karlin-Smith, health care reporter for POLITICO, explains the opioid crisis, and how America can change it's practices and policies to help bring the crisis to an end.