It started as little more than a rumor. A few weeks ago, Axios had a report that Donald Trump has privately expressed admiration for how Singapore deals with drug-trafficking offenses: the government executes those found guilty. The American president, the report said, has been “telling friends for months” that Singapore’s model is effective.
Trump kicked things up a notch during a recent White House summit on the opioid crisis, reminding attendees that countries that kill drug dealers “have much less of a drug problem than we do.”
Now he’s taking this pitch to the public.
President Trump on Saturday again called for enacting the death penalty for drug dealers during a rally meant to bolster a struggling GOP candidate for a U.S. House seat here. […]
Trump said that allowing prosecutors to seek the death penalty for drug dealers — an idea he said he got from Chinese President Xi Jinping — is “a discussion we have to start thinking about. I don’t know if this country’s ready for it.”
So, Donald Trump believes that to address the drug problem, the American government should probably kill more American citizens. What’s more, Trump’s thinking on criminal justice issues has apparently been shaped by China — a country led by an unelected president who expects to serve for life, in a country that isn’t exactly known for serving as a model on civil liberties.
For those concerned about Trump’s authoritarian tendencies, this won’t help.
Worse, whether Trump understands this or not, China still has a serious drug problem of its own, harsh criminal penalties notwithstanding, which is pretty much the opposite of what the Republican told his Pennsylvania audience over the weekend.









