President Donald Trump appeared to suggest he would support the death penalty for major drug dealers in a speech at the White House opioid summit Thursday.
“If you shoot one person, they give you the death penalty. These people can kill two, three thousand people and nothing happens to them,” Trump said, adding “some countries have a very, very tough penalty, the ultimate penalty. By the way, they have much less of a drug problem than we do. So we’re going to have to be very strong on penalties.”
The president’s comments follow a Sunday report from Axios that he had privately mentioned the same idea to several members of Congress and key aides in meetings on the opioid crisis. “He says that a lot,” one aide said to Axios on the Trump’s feelings towards drug dealers.
White House officials clarified to Axios that Trump would spare this punishment for only the worst drug offenders.