President Trump talks privately about instituting the death penalty for drug offenses like Singapore as a way to drive down consumption of illicit substances, according to a report.
“He says that a lot,” a source told Axios in an interview published Sunday. “He says, ‘When I ask the prime minister of Singapore do they have a drug problem [the prime minister replies,] ‘No. Death penalty’.”
Another senior aide told the news outlet Trump “often jokes about killing drug dealers.”
“He’ll say, ‘You know the Chinese and Filipinos don’t have a drug problem. They just kill them,'” the official said.
Trump also compares drug dealers to serial killers, five sources told Axios.
However, Trump reportedly understands such a policy would probably not be politically feasible, per Axios.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who is spearheading the Trump administration’s efforts to combat the opioid overdose epidemic, said Trump’s statements are in reference to high-volume dealers who may kill more people than a one-time murderer.
“The president makes a distinction between those that are languishing in prison for low-level drug offenses and the kingpins hauling thousands of lethal doses of fentanyl into communities, that are responsible for many casualties in a single weekend,” Conway told Axios, using fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, as an example.
Earlier in February, the White House proposed in its budget request $5 billion in federal money be spent tackling the opioid epidemic, funding medical research on addiction, and overdose-reversal drugs.
