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* Latest * Magazine * Current Issue * Archives * Subscribe * Crossword * Video * Podcasts * All Shows * The Reason Roundtable * The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie * The Soho Forum Debates * The Best of Reason Magazine * Why We Can't Have Nice Things * Volokh * Newsletters * Donate * Donate Online * Donate Crypto * Ways To Give To Reason Foundation * Torchbearer Society * Planned Giving * Subscribe * Print/Digital Subscriptions * Gift Subscriptions Search for: LOGIN FORM Username(Required) Password(Required) Remember Me Login Create new account Forgot password Donald Trump PRESIDENT TRUMP FREED DRUG OFFENDERS. CANDIDATE TRUMP WANTS TO KILL THEM. THE FIRST STEP ACT SIGNED BY TRUMP EASED DRUG SENTENCING. HE'S RUNNING AWAY FROM THAT ACCOMPLISHMENT IN THE 2024 ELECTION. Jacob Sullum | From the November 2023 issue Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Media Contact & Reprint Requests (Illustration: Levente Janos/Alamy) Donald Trump can't seem to decide whether he wants to execute drug dealers or free them from prison. The former president's debate with himself reflects a broader clash between Republicans who think harsher criminal penalties are always better and Republicans who understand that justice requires proportionality. Trump has long admired brutal drug warriors like Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines. Consistent with that affinity, he has repeatedly floated the idea of imposing the death penalty on drug traffickers. Trump returned to that theme in November 2022, when he officially launched his 2024 presidential campaign. "We're going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught selling drugs, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts," he said. Trump reiterated that position during a June 2023 interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier, saying, "That's the only way you're going to stop it." But as Baier pointed out, a policy of executing "everyone who sells drugs" is inconsistent with Trump's record as president, which included sentencing reforms and acts of clemency aimed at reducing drug penalties that Trump described as "very unfair." Powered By 00:00/01:18 10 Sec Arnold Schwarzenegger Says Today's Leading U.S. Presidential Candidates Are Too Old | THR News Video Next Stay Defending that record, Trump cited the commutation he granted to Alice Johnson, a first-time, nonviolent drug offender who was serving a life sentence for participating in a Memphis-based cocaine trafficking operation. "But she'd be killed under your plan," Baier noted, "as a drug dealer." That observation flummoxed Trump. "No, no, no," he said. "It would depend on the severity," he added. He also noted that the death penalty he imagines would not apply retroactively to Johnson herself and suggested that, had it been the law at the time, it would have deterred her from getting involved in drug dealing. All of that is beside the point, of course. If a life sentence was excessively severe for Johnson, a death sentence obviously would have been inappropriate as well—and not just for her specifically but for anyone guilty of similar offenses. Trump's confusion on this point is especially striking because Johnson became a symbol of his purported opposition to unjust drug penalties: She attended his 2019 State of the Union address, appeared in a Trump campaign ad during the 2020 Super Bowl, and spoke at the Republican National Convention that summer. Trump repeatedly linked Johnson to the broader cause of sentencing reform, which he proudly championed by embracing the FIRST STEP Act. Among other things, that 2018 law reduced several mandatory minimum sentences, authorized the resentencing of crack offenders in line with current penalties, expanded the "safety valve" that allows some drug defendants to avoid mandatory minimums, increased "good time" credit for federal prisoners, and facilitated "compassionate release" of elderly and ailing inmates. With Trump's backing, the bill attracted support from 182 Republicans in the House and 38 in the Senate. During the 2020 presidential race, Trump used the FIRST STEP Act to attack Joe Biden from the left on criminal justice, highlighting the Democrat's long history of supporting draconian drug penalties that disproportionately hurt African Americans. Now Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump's leading rival for the Republican presidential nomination, is using the FIRST STEP Act to attack Trump as soft on crime. DeSantis, who brags about lengthening Florida's drug sentences, condemns the FIRST STEP Act as "a jailbreak bill," saying it endangers public safety by "releasing people who have not been rehabilitated." As president, he says, he would urge Congress to repeal that "huge, huge mistake." Trump could respond by noting that several provisions of the FIRST STEP Act are designed to promote rehabilitation. He also could cite data indicating that former prisoners who have benefited from the law have a relatively low recidivism rate. Trump might even argue that the goal of preventing crime by keeping people locked up must be balanced against the goal of ensuring that punishment is commensurate with the offense. Instead, Trump seems determined to show, by re-upping his kill-them-all proposal, that he can be even more mindlessly punitive than DeSantis. Not to be outdone, DeSantis has suggested that suspected drug traffickers should be summarily executed when they are caught "breaking through the border wall" between the U.S. and Mexico. "Of course you use deadly force," he said during a June campaign stop in Eagle Pass, Texas. "If you drop a couple of these cartel operatives trying to do that, you're not going to have to worry about that anymore," he explained, because they would be "stone-cold dead." Subscribe to Reason Roundup, a wrap up of the last 24 hours of news, delivered fresh each morning. Email(Required) Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Submit Δ NEXT: Brickbats: November 2023 Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason. Donald TrumpDrugsTrump AdministrationOvercriminalization Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Media Contact & Reprint Requests Show Comments (134) LATEST IT'S HARD TO SEE HOW THE 9TH CIRCUIT CAN MANAGE TO UPHOLD CALIFORNIA'S 'ASSAULT WEAPON' BAN Jacob Sullum | 10.30.2023 4:10 PM BIDEN WANTS ANOTHER $56 BILLION IN 'EMERGENCY' SPENDING Eric Boehm | 10.30.2023 3:10 PM DESANTIS WANTS TO REDUCE MASS SHOOTINGS BY LOCKING MORE PEOPLE IN MENTAL HOSPITALS Emma Camp | 10.30.2023 2:31 PM BILL MAHER ATTACKS 'THE REAL DEEP STATE' OF GOVERNMENT REGULATORS, ADMINISTRATORS, AND ZONING OFFICERS Christian Britschgi | 10.30.2023 12:20 PM WEEKEND BLACKOUT Liz Wolfe | 10.30.2023 9:30 AM * About * Browse Topics * Events * Staff * Jobs * Donate * Advertise * Subscribe * Contact * Media * Shop * Amazon Reason FacebookReason TwitterReason InstagramReason TikTokReason YoutubeReason ItunesReason on FlipboardReason RSS © 2023 Reason Foundation | Accessibility | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. 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