Recommendations of the Editorial team
Donald Trump’s Justice Department announced on Friday that that the firing squad be reintroduced as a method of execution for those sentenced to death.
Fox News was first to report on the Justice Department’s memo.
“Today, the Department of Justice restored its solemn duty to seek, obtain, and execute lawful death sentences — clearing the way to carry out executions once death row inmates have exhausted all legal remedies,” the memo said. “Measures taken include reinstating the lethal injection protocol from the first Trump administration, expanding the protocol to include additional methods of execution such as the firing squad, and streamlining internal processes to expedite death penalty cases.”
Trump and the death penalty
Trump has always made it clear that he is a strong supporter of the death penalty and has long wanted to expand its use. His first administration carried out more executions (13) in the last six months than the ten previous presidential administrations combined. ROLLING STONE reported in 2023 that Trump had expressed a desire to reintroduce firing squads, hangings and even the guillotine if he were to take office again. Trump is also said to have considered launching a video campaign to celebrate the reintroduction of more drastic execution methods for federal prisoners – although a Trump spokesman denies this.
“He had a particular fondness for the firing squad because it seemed more dramatic than the way we normally do it – injecting someone and putting them to sleep,” a former White House official told us at the time. “He was hell-bent on the idea of executing large numbers of drug dealers and drug lords because he said, ‘These people don’t give a shit,’ and that they run their drug empire and their business out of prison anyway, then come back out on the streets, get all their money back and continue to commit crimes… and so they need to be eradicated, not locked up.”
Trump remained committed to expanding the death penalty even after his victory in the 2024 election – so much so that activists pressured Joe Biden to commute the sentences of federal prison inmates on death row before Trump could take office and execute them all. Biden actually suspended the executions of 37 men on federal prison death row in December. Trump was anything but pleased.
Trump’s angry tirade at Christmas
“Also the 37 most brutal criminals who murdered, raped and plundered like no one before them, but were incredibly pardoned by Sleepy Joe Biden,” the future president wrote on Christmas Day. “I refuse to wish these lucky ‘souls’ a Merry Christmas and instead say: TO HELL WITH YOU!”
