--- title: Rodrigo Duterte: Donald Trump Endorsed Deadly War on Drugs description: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Donald Trump commended him in a phone call for conducting his brutal war on drugs "the right way" canonical: https://time.com/4589671/rodrigo-duterte-donald-trump-antidrug-campaign/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-03T16:07:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:07:32.209Z article:section: Politics og:title: Rodrigo Duterte: Donald Trump Endorsed Deadly War on Drugs as 'The Right Way' og:description: The Philippines president has led a brutal crackdown on drugs og:url: https://time.com/4589671/rodrigo-duterte-donald-trump-antidrug-campaign/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt369dfb5922bb9b0a/6988b07a0a4a221a9e9cc3a4/rodrigo-duterte-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: PHILIPPINES-POLITICS-DUTERTE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rodrigo Duterte: Donald Trump Endorsed Deadly War on Drugs as 'The Right Way' twitter:description: The Philippines president has led a brutal crackdown on drugs twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt369dfb5922bb9b0a/6988b07a0a4a221a9e9cc3a4/rodrigo-duterte-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rodrigo Duterte: Donald Trump Endorsed Deadly War on Drugs as 'the Right Way'  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Dec 3, 2016 4:07 PM UTC  Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures as he talks during the 115th Police Service Anniversary at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Manila on Aug. 17, 2016. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures as he talks during the 115th Police Service Anniversary at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Manila on Aug. 17, 2016.Noel Celis—AFP/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Dec 3, 2016 4:07 PM UTC Philippine President [Rodrigo Duterte](http://time.com/4480188/obama-whore-rodrigo-duterte-remarks/) said U.S. President-elect Donald Trump commended him in a phone call for conducting his [brutal war on drugs](http://time.com/4462352/rodrigo-duterte-drug-war-drugs-philippines-killing/) “the right way.” The two leaders spoke by phone on Friday, and Duterte relayed their conversation to reporters on Saturday, [the New York _Times_ reported](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/03/world/asia/philippines-rodrigo-duterte-donald-trump.html). “He wishes me well, too, in my campaign, and he said that, well, we are doing it as a sovereign nation, the right way,” said Duterte, who has encouraged extrajudicial killings of people suspected of using or selling drugs. Since he took office in June, more than 2,000 people have been killed by police and vigilantes, the _Times_ reports. Duterte has [invoked the Holocaust](http://time.com/4514237/philippines-rodrigo-duterte-adolf-hitler-nazis/) to defend his war on drugs. “Hitler massacred 3 million Jews. Now, there are 3 million drug addicts,” he said in September. “I’d be happy to slaughter them.” His tactics have [prompted criticism](http://time.com/4516231/philippines-rodrigo-duterte-tdefense-agreement-us-edca-drug-war/) from leaders in the U.S. and U.N. When U.S. President Barack Obama said he planned to discuss the antidrug campaign in scheduled talks with the Philippine President, [Duterte called him](http://time.com/4483650/obama-duterte-son-of-a-whore-asean/) “a son of a whore.” “I could sense a good rapport, an animated President-elect Trump,” Duterte said Saturday. “And he was wishing me success in my campaign against the drug problem.” “He understood the way we are handling it, and I said that there’s nothing wrong in protecting a country,” Duterte said, according to the _Times_. “It was a bit very encouraging in the sense that I supposed that what he really wanted to say was that we would be the last to interfere in the affairs of your own country.” Trump’s transition team has not yet commented on the phone call, during which Trump [extended an invitation](http://time.com/4589202/donald-trump-rodrigo-duterte-invite/) for Duterte to visit the White House. Asked about the invitation on Friday, White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz called extrajudicial killings “inconsistent with the values that we try and promote around the world — values that include basic human rights.” “It’s going to be up to the next President-elect to decide which foreign leaders he meets with,” he said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4589671/rodrigo-duterte-donald-trump-antidrug-campaign/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4589671/rodrigo-duterte-donald-trump-antidrug-campaign/"},"headline":"Rodrigo Duterte: Donald Trump Endorsed Deadly War on Drugs as 'the Right Way'","datePublished":"2016-12-03T16:07:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:07:32.209Z","description":"The Philippine President has led a brutal crackdown on drugs","url":"https://time.com/4589671/rodrigo-duterte-donald-trump-antidrug-campaign/","keywords":["Donald Trump","White House","Philippines"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt369dfb5922bb9b0a/6988b07a0a4a221a9e9cc3a4/rodrigo-duterte-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt369dfb5922bb9b0a/6988b07a0a4a221a9e9cc3a4/rodrigo-duterte-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"PHILIPPINES-POLITICS-DUTERTE","caption":"PHILIPPINES-POLITICS-DUTERTE","creditText":"Noel Celis—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4589671/rodrigo-duterte-donald-trump-antidrug-campaign/","name":"Rodrigo Duterte: Donald Trump Endorsed Deadly War on Drugs as 'the Right Way'"}}]}] ```