--- title: President Trump Suggests Executing Drug Dealers description: President Trump suggested executing drug dealers to crack down on America's opioid crisis. canonical: https://time.com/5181830/president-trump-execute-drug-dealers-opiod-crisis/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-01T21:10:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:29:41.817Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Suggests Executing Drug Dealers og:description: The comment came while discussing ways to fix on America's opioid crisis. og:url: https://time.com/5181830/president-trump-execute-drug-dealers-opiod-crisis/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48c7cd75a960930b/6989290386f68e3f6e6e86f2/trump-air-force-one-boeing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4500 og:image:height: 2531 og:image:alt: Trump Air Force One Boeing og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Suggests Executing Drug Dealers twitter:description: The comment came while discussing ways to fix on America's opioid crisis. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48c7cd75a960930b/6989290386f68e3f6e6e86f2/trump-air-force-one-boeing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Suggests Executing Drug Dealers > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 1, 2018 9:10 PM UTC  President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base on October 7, 2017 in Maryland. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base on October 7, 2017 in Maryland. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI—AFP/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 1, 2018 9:10 PM UTC President Trump suggested executing drug dealers to crack down on America’s [opioid crisis](http://time.com/james-nachtwey-opioid-addiction-america/). “The drug dealers, the drug pushers, they’re really doing damage,” Trump said at an opioid event at the White House Thursday. “Some countries have a very, very tough penalty — the ultimate penalty. And by the way, they have much less of a drug problem than we do.” “If you shoot one person, they give you life, they give you the death penalty,” Trump said. “These people can kill 2,000, 3,000 people, and nothing happens to them.” Trump comments came days after [_Axios_ reported](https://www.axios.com/exclusive-trump-privately-talks-up-executing-all-big-drug-dealers-1519595170-402cc386-8729-4684-a7ef-a5bf31876afa.html) that he had been privately praising Singapore’s mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking offenses. Kellyanne Conway, who runs anti-drug initiatives at the White House, told _Axios_ that Trump’s position isn’t one-size-fits all. “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,” she said. Trump has also previously praised controversial Philippine President Roderigo Duterte, who has led a [massive extrajudicial crackdown on drugs](http://time.com/philippines-drug-war/) in his country that has left thousands dead. Last year, Trump [called Duterte](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/us/politics/trump-duterte-phone-transcript-philippine-drug-crackdown.html) and told him he has done an “unbelievable job on the drug problem.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5181830/president-trump-execute-drug-dealers-opiod-crisis/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5181830/president-trump-execute-drug-dealers-opiod-crisis/"},"headline":"President Trump Suggests Executing Drug Dealers","datePublished":"2018-03-01T21:10:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:29:41.817Z","description":"The comment came while discussing ways to fix on America's opioid crisis.","url":"https://time.com/5181830/president-trump-execute-drug-dealers-opiod-crisis/","keywords":["White House","Crime","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48c7cd75a960930b/6989290386f68e3f6e6e86f2/trump-air-force-one-boeing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48c7cd75a960930b/6989290386f68e3f6e6e86f2/trump-air-force-one-boeing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump Air Force One Boeing","caption":"Trump Air Force One Boeing","creditText":"BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI—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/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5181830/president-trump-execute-drug-dealers-opiod-crisis/","name":"President Trump Suggests Executing Drug Dealers"}}]}] ```