President Trump has been telling friends for months that he loves the drug policies in Asian countries that kill drug traffickers and "would love to have a law to execute all drug dealers here in America, though he's privately admitted it would probably be impossible to get a law this harsh passed under the American system," Axios reports. "He says that a lot," one source who has spoken with Trump about drugs at length tells Jonathan Swan at Axios. "He says, 'When I ask the prime minister of Singapore do they have a drug problem [the prime minister replies,] 'No. Death penalty.'"
A senior administration official tells Axios that 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.'" But five sources tell Swan that Trump isn't joking, and often "leaps into a passionate speech about how drug dealers are as bad as serial killers and should all get the death penalty." White House counselor and de facto opioids czar Kellyanne Conway told Swan that Trump is talking about high-volume drug dealers, especially those who traffickers deadly synthetic opioids like fentanyl — though that isn't the standard in the Asian countries whose drug policies Trump apparently envies.
In lieu of mandatory execution for drug dealers, Trump will likely back mandatory minimum sentencing legislation for traffickers who sell as little as 2 grams of fentanyl, Conway says, as well as ramped-up anti-drug messaging in schools.