OVERNIGHT OPINIONS: Trump The Executioner in Chief

Thanks for listening to Overnight Opinions, a weekly news roundup on the Ladies Love Politics channel. Here you’ll get current events blended with spicy commentary directed at our elected leaders.
It’s late, you’re awake, let’s get started …
You can check out the Ladies Love Politics blog and read a transcript/references of this episode at www.ladieslovepolitics.com.
Background Music Credit:
Music: Hang for Days - Silent Partner https://youtu.be/A41A0XeU2dsShow more

Unless you live under a rock, you know that Trump announced he is running for president in 2024. But for all the excitement this generated amongst the MAGA crowd, they should really check themselves. Not for the platform we all know Trump has represented - but the new platform piece he added. If you missed the his speech, take a listen:
SOT: Trump
“I will ask Congress for a legislation ensuring that drug dealers and human traffickers — these are terrible, terrible, horrible people — who are responsible for death, carnage and crime all over our country; every drug dealer during his or her life, on average, will kill 500 people with the drugs they sell. Not to mention, the destruction of families. We’re going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, is caught selling drugs, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts because it’s the only way.”
Now this isn’t totally off the cuff comment. He wasn’t speaking freely, he was reading a teleprompter - another point of criticism but for another day. You know that speech was contemplated and scrutinized beforehand by his handlers. It didn’t just show up on its own. It was premeditated.
And did you hear the applause from the MAGA crowd - cheering the killing of their fellow Americans. It’s twisted.
Furthermore, he said something similar back in July.
SOT: Trump
“The penalties should be very, very severe. If you look at countries throughout the world, the ones that don’t have a drug problem are ones that institute a very quick trial death penalty sentence for drug dealers. It sounds horrible, doesn’t it? But you know what? That’s the ones that don’t have any problem. It doesn’t take 15 years in court. It goes quickly, and you absolutely — you execute a drug dealer, and you’ll save 500 lives. It’s terrible to say, but you take a look at every country in this world that doesn’t have a problem with drugs, they have a very strong death penalty for people that sell drugs.”
Let’s unpack this idea.
Trump says that drug traffickers will kill 500 people with the drugs they sell. This number has largely been pulled right out of his bad hair. The Washington Post investigated this figure. They note that according to the National Institutes of Health, about 600,000 people died of drug overdoses from 2010 to 2020. Using Trump’s 500 deaths per dealer number, this would mean there are only 1,200 drug dealers in the U.S. However, there are nearly 20,000 drug traffickers prosecuted each year in this country.
While he was President, Trump claimed this figure to be as high as 2,000, 3,000, and even 5,000 deaths per dealer. When pressed about this, his administration claimed they were referencing drug kingpins.
Well, Trump, there is a BIG difference between a drug kingpin and a drug dealer. We all know dealers. Just go to your local high school. Very few of us know kingpins.
Trump seems to over-exaggerate this death per dealer number - most likely to stir up support for his death penalty desires. However, it fails to suffice common sense and actual facts. Furthermore, if you are talking about kingpins, then say it - it’s still wrong, but a far cry from the tyranny of executing common drug dealers. So, what is it Don?
Let’s take a look at how hypocritical this is for Trump to say. Remember when he was president and pardoned Alice Johnson. She was the grandmother and first-time offender who got a life sentence for selling drugs. Many thought the punishment was too harsh. Kim Kardashian even showed up in the White House to ask for a pardon. It was a whole reality show shit show. Nevertheless, Trump did the right thing and let her go. He gave public remarks on it from the Oval Office with Johnson. Trump mentioned that she had spent 22 years in prison. He went on to say, “and — for something that, today, a lot of people wouldn’t even be going to jail for. And it was — it was horrible. And we found out about it. And we gave a commutation; that means we were able to get Alice out. And she has been just so outstanding, and I’m so proud of you.”
By Trump’s comments, last week, he would have executed Alice Johnson. From pardon to death penalty, Trump sure does move fast. Because, you see, Alice wasn’t just a petty drug dealer, no, she was a pro at it. She was convicted on 8 criminal counts from a cocaine trafficking operation in Memphis that involved more than a dozen individuals. She was closer to a kingpin than a local dealer and she got a pardon. Was Trump doing it for just a political stunt? Was it for attention? Or did he just want to meet another porn star, Kim Kardashian? I’ll let you answer that one.
Even if Trump would later come out and correct his statement and say that the death penalty would only apply to kingpin drug dealers… well, I think we all know that Alice would fit that a little too comfortably.
Now whether the death penalty could be applied to drug dealers is unclear. The Supreme Court, in a 2008 ruling, said “the death penalty should not be expanded to instances where the victim’s life was not taken.” But the majority opinion did not completely close the door on that notion, saying, “we do not address, for example, crimes defining and punishing treason, espionage, terrorism, and drug kingpin activity, which are offenses against the state.”
But let’s back things up a minute. Have you thought about the actual logistics of killing drug dealers? Since the time we reinstated the death penalty in 1976, up to present day, we have executed far more than 1,500 people in the U.S. Now put a pin in that and now let’s look at the number of drug traffickers in prison that Trump would want to execute. Currently, there are nearly 64,000 drug traffickers incarcerated in federal prison. If we give them all the death penalty, that would be 41 times more than the number of executions we performed since the death penalty was reinstated.
Let’s take a step back and look at the macro view of this issue: Do Americans really even like the death penalty?
Well, more than half of U.S. adults favor the death penalty for murderers, according to the Pew Research Center. However, support has declined overtime, Since 1996, support for the death penalty fell from nearly 78% down to 52%. In the meantime, opposition to the death penalty, has more than doubled, from 18% to 44%. And we’ve also saw a nearly 30% decline in the number of executions that occurred from the year 2000 up until 2019.
Currently, 27 states allow for the death penalty, most of these are in the south and west. However, nearly half of those pro-death penalty states haven’t executed someone in more than decade.
Unless he changes this opinion - and soon - this the death penalty will bounce back and result in the murder of thousands of Americans - many of whom may be innocent. is as brutal and dangerous as it is arrogant and tyrannical.
Stick around and find out the 9 reasons why Trump’s idea for the death penalty for drug dealers is full of poppycock.
ONE
We still are not 100% error proof in our current executions. In 1985, Kirk Bloodsworth became the first death row inmate to be exonerated by DNA evidence. If you support the death penalty, you probably want it to be applied to people who actually committed the crime - not the innocent. The justice system in this country isn’t suited for that - never has and probably never will. People are not perfect. We still find innocent people on death row all the time. This past August, Marilyn Mulero was spared from execution. She was the 190th person to be exonerated from death row in the United States. She was also the 16th death row exoneration in Cook County- which has the most exoneration of any county in the country. And she was Illinois 22nd exoneree from death row The only state with more exonerations is Florida, which has 30.
Mulero wasn’t saved by DNA but by a dirty detective’s deeds coming to light. After the detective grilled Mulero for 20 hours and threatened her with the death penalty and losing her kids. She wasn’t allowed to sleep or talk to a lawyer. Under pressure, Mulero signed a confession. But Mulero wasn’t the only victim. In fact, 31 cases involving this detective were vacated. Illinois Attorney General Kim Foxx said, “we no longer believe in the validity of these convictions or the credibility of the evidence of these convictions.” That detective isn’t alone. There’s all sorts out there just like that, fouling up the criminal justice system. But are we willing to hang our hat on the perfection of detectives and cops, to execute potentially the innocent?
TWO
Did you know that the Supreme Court halted the use of the death penalty?
In Furman v. Georgia, the Court examined whether execution violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The Court found that the death penalty had been applied in ways that disproportionately harmed minorities and the poor. Justices Brennan and Marshall claimed it was unconstitutional for any reason. The death penalty was halted for the next four years in the U.S. States then began rewriting their death penalty laws to make sure they weren’t applied “arbitrarily or discriminatorily.” Then in 1977, Gary Gilmore became the first person to be executed after the hiatus. And it never stopped…
In 2008, the Supreme court re-examined the death penalty again, and they said “the death penalty should not be expanded to instances where the victim’s life was not taken.” However, they opened the door wide open for what Trump wants to do. The Court ruled that, “we do not address, for example, crimes defining and punishing treason, espionage, terrorism, and drug kingpin activity, which are offenses against the state.”
THREE
What about Big Tobacco? Nearly half a million people die every year in the United States from cigarettes every year - one in five of all deaths in the U.S. That’s 1,300 people every single day. For every cigarette death, 30 other people live with a serious smoking-related illness, resulting in 16 million people living with a smoking related disease. Even worse, everyday, 2,000 minors have their first cigarette - 300 of them have become daily cigarette smokers. Overall, smoking costs the U.S. $600 billion a year. Yet, Big Tobacco spends a million dollars an hour to advertise their products to Americans.
Are we going to assign the death penalty to Big Tobacco Executives? I doubt it.
FOUR
What about alcohol? Every year, 140,000 people die from excessive alcohol use - that equates to 380 deaths a day. This type of drinking takes on average 26 years off someone’s life and causes nearly 60 medical conditions. Excessive drinking costs the U.S. nearly $250 billion, each year. Despite disease and death, Big Alcohol is expected to spend more than $7 billion dollars advertising to Americans next year.
Are we going to assign the death penalty to Big Alcohol Executives? I doubt it.
FIVE
Drug cases are dependent on statements by witnesses and on the investigation at hand by cops and detectives that are on the scene. But it’s possible that they could be dirty. Like who we learned about earlier with Marilyn Mulero. Are they planting evidence? Are they covering things uP? Well, people are people and they’re subject to doing corrupt things - just because they’re part of law enforcement or the criminal justice system doesn’t exempt them from the desires and temptations of the flesh to do bad things. We all know the racial disparity of drug crimes is ridiculous. We already know that whites and blacks use drugs at the same rate, yet blacks are twice as likely to get arrested for them. So why are we going to take drug crimes - drug sellers- and give them the death penalty when we know that it will disproportionally result in the death of more black Americans?
SIX
According to the Drug Policy Alliance, “there is significant overlap between drug sellers and people who use drugs. A 2012 survey found that 43% of people who reported having sold drugs in the past year also reported that they met the criteria for a substance use disorder.”
So I ask - are we really comfortable with executing people who are selling drugs to enable their addiction? As a country, can't we be a little more compassionate? Can’t we give second chances? Can’t we allow people to come to sobriety on their own with fear of being murdered by their government?
SEVEN
Think about the cost and time of appeals. Death penalty cases are expensive and drawn out - rightfully, so. The amount of bureaucratic chaos will be unprecedented. The justice system will slow to a screeching halt. Those that are the victims of real crimes - like rape and murder - will have to wait longer to get the justice they deserve.
And we aren’t saving any money by killing people, it’s a common misconception. The death penalty has cost California $4 billion since 1978. Florida spends $51 million more a year to execute their prisoners for murder instead of justgiving life sentences. Texas death penalty cases cost on average $2.3 million - that’s nearly three times what it would cost to incarcerate someone for 40 years. North Carolina spends more than $2 million per execution over the cost of a life sentence. Oklahoma spends three times more on a death penalty case then what it would on a non-death penalty case. Kansas spends more than four times as much.
EIGHT
Can we go after doctors and Big Pharma for their role in the opioid epidemic?
More than 900,000 people have died from a drug overdose since 1999. In 2020, 75% of those involved an opioid.
We’re all familiar with the epidemic. We hear politicians bitching about it all the time, but they never really do anything about it.
Doctors began overprescribing opioids in the 90’s which led to the second wave - a sharp rise in heroin overdose deaths. The third and final wave came in 2013 when overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids rose sharply. The demand for illicitly manufactured fentanyl skyrocketed and it can be found in things like heroin, counterfeit pills, and cocaine. Now, 187 people die everyday of synthetic and non-synthetic opioids.
Are we ready to start executing doctors over it - they are in fact the ones that started it all? I doubt it. And we all know Big Pharma would never let that happen. They’d be exempt from the death penalty if Trump got his idea into law because Big Pharma has lobbyists - you don’t.
NINE
Illegal drugs are lethal because of the users' stupidity. It would be like blaming McDonalds for someone gorging on their Big Mac’s and dying of a heart attack. In reality, their food isn’t good for you, but overdosing on fatty, processed junk food is the users fault. It’s bad to eat it, really, ever, but people do things all the time that are bad for them. They eat sweets or drink alcohol or drink lots of soda. In the end, people choose how much damage to do to themselves.
So, in conclusion I want you to think about a few things.
What about those selling marijuana in the states? Are dispensaries now horrible drug dealers deserving of the death penalty? Or will you go after the recreational states first then the medical marijuana states? What about the doctors who provide prescriptions for medical marijuana? Will they get executed? Finally, how long will it take before we execute the user? It’s not too far down the slippery slope to think about. Are we really going to punish addiction with execution then? Similarly, that would mean medical marijuana users could get the death penalty? If nothing else, their access to lifesaving pain relief would shore up? Who will grow and sell marijuana if the death penalty looms over their head. Even if the law doesn’t go after marijuana, and somehow makes it exempt, I’d be too scared to keep growing it under those new conditions that Trump wants to kill people. Who would want to fly that close to the sun and get burned with the price being their life?
I’m not going to litigate the waste of the war on drugs or how criminalizing drug use is a violation of our liberties, how it infringes on our right to bodily autonomy and the ability to decide what goes into our bodies when and how. But think about this. As president, Trump was mainlining hydroxychloroquine - a prescription - just for prophylactic reasons. The party that followed him. The party was injecting themselves with horse dewormer - Ivermectin. I recall Alex Jones eating in on-air live and all the other conservative pundits and wannabes touting its greatness. And that’s great- they pushed back against the prevailing medical authorities. And it was their right to do so. But if you’re going to take horse dewormer why can’t someone else take a drug?
But let’s go a little deeper.
Some might say an insurrectionist is worse than drug selling… and then wouldn’t that mean the January 6 people would be up to have their heads on a chopping block? Believe me, the left will then try to take the power of execution and use it for their own political games? Once this starts, it will escalate very quickly. They will have no problem executing those who threaten democracy and are deemed an insurrectionist. We’ve seen how they treated those people so far.
After all this, you should find the death penalty a grotesque punishment for selling drugs. But even more, consider the games being played. Who is pulling Trump’s string to go from pardon to death penalty? Why is he taking such draconian measures? Why is a guy that said he would leave states alone on marijuana laws, now trying to execute people at the federal level for selling them? Is Trump a RINO or is being bombarded by the establishment? Are they hijacking the MAGA movement into a perverted new form of MAGA? Is there a Trojan horse in the mix.
Who knows… but what I do know is that Americans don’t want their weed dealer getting the chair.
REFERENCES:
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3575157-trump-in-dc-speech-calls-for-death-penalty-for-convicted-drug-dealers/
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/alice-marie-johnson-010200106.html
https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-granting-full-pardon-alice-johnson/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/14/debunked-claims-faux-facts-supporting-trumps-plan-execute-drug-dealers/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/199086/total-number-of-executions-in-the-us-by-method/
https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/quick-facts/BOP_January2022.pdf
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/07/19/10-facts-about-the-death-penalty-in-the-u-s/
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/554/07-343/opinion.pdf#page=26
https://conservativesconcerned.org/why-were-concerned/innocence/
https://eji.org/news/marilyn-mulero-is-190th-person-exonerated-from-death-row/
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/furman_v_georgia_(1972)
https://time.com/4801230/last-execution-before-moratorium/
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/diseases-and-death.html
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/economics/econ_facts/index.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/cost-and-expenditures.html
https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/features/excessive-alcohol-deaths.html
https://movendi.ngo/news/2021/05/28/big-alcohol-exposed-big-investments-in-advertising-onslaught/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/21/ethnic-minorities-likely-charged-drug-possession
https://drugpolicy.org/drugsellers
https://documents.deathpenaltyinfo.org/pdf/FactSheet.pdf
https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html
https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html
https://www.hhs.gov/opioids/about-the-epidemic/opioid-crisis-statistics/index.html
https://www.aclu.org/other/case-against-death-penalty