Donald Trump

Our current President, Donald Trump, is in favor of the death penalty. He makes this opinion very known through speeches and tweets. Most recently, he has been calling for the execution of the whistleblower who brought up parts of the President's call with Ukraine. For Trump, capital punishment is more than a form of justice. It's a way to get votes. At many of his rallies, he talks about how he has always supported the death penalty and doesn't understand why others don't. During a campaign rally, Trump talked about Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S. soldier who deserted his post and was taken hostage by the Taliban. Trump says he should be executed by firing squad for deserting his post.

While in office, Trump has looked for reasons to expand the use of the death penalty. Trump has talked about a deal he struck with Xi to expand China’s death penalty to manufacturers of fentanyl. On multiple occasions, Trump has endorsed other countries’ use of the death penalty for some drug crimes. During Trump's remarks in March of 2018 about the opioid crisis, he suggested that the U.S. implement the death penalty or drug related crimes. Trump’s Department of Justice recently asked the Federal Bureau of Prisons to revive the federal death penalty, which has been dormant since 2003.

Trump's love for the death penalty was around long before he became President. Four black males and one Latino male, aged 14 to 16, were on trial in 1989 for the assault and rape of a white female who had been jogging in Central Park. Donald Trump spent $85,000 to run a full-page advertisement in four New York City newspapers, calling for their executions via the reinstatement of the death penalty. The ad read “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!” in bold capital letters. The five men were later exonerated by DNA evidence, but Donald Trump has never retracted or apologized for his demand to have them put to death.

Trump is not pleased with "how easy" some people get it when they are put to death. He has talked in disgust about lethal injections. He disagrees with the use of the midazolam, the drug used so there is no pain. Trump feels as though the inmates do not deserve this drug. He wants them to feel the pain, because they put others in pain with their criminal acts.

Trump very much has an "eye for an eye" approach. When a woman in Oklahoma was beheaded, he suggested that the guilty party be sentenced to death, and should be executed by being beheaded.