Is Trump Planning to Bring Back Firing Squads and Group Executions if Re-Elected in 2024?

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In February 2023, we received reader mail asking if former US President Donald Trump plans to bring back firing squads and group executions if he wins re-election in 2024.

This news was first reported on Feb. 14 by Rolling Stone journalists Asawin Suebsaeng and Patrick Reis. The headline of the article read, “Trump Plans to Bring Back Firing Squads, Group Executions if He Retakes White House.”

The sources cited for Rolling Stone’s reporting were identified anonymously as “three people familiar with the situation.” One of the sources was named as “a former Trump White House official.”

According to the story, Trump repeatedly asked several close associates, “What do you think about firing squads?”

The article’s anonymous sources cited several supposed ideas floated by Trump, including “expanding the use of the federal death penalty and bringing back prohibited methods of execution,” possibly broadcasting videos of executions , bringing back hangings and guillotines, and even “creating a lavish, government-backed video-ad campaign” to promote the plans. It also cited the former president’s record of federal executions during his term in the White House.

In a letter to Rolling Stone, a spokesperson for Trump denied the claim about the creation of a video-ad campaign, saying of the claims, “Either these people are making up lies out of thin air, or the Rolling Stone are allowing themselves to be deceived by these morons. .”

Snopes was unable to independently verify the article’s claims. We’ve reached out to the Trump campaign with multiple questions and will update this story if we hear back. At the time we published this story, the former president had not yet referenced the Rolling Stone article on his Truth Social page.

On Trump’s official 2024 campaign website, the death penalty is mentioned on his “Agenda” page along with his plans to take down drug cartels:

President Donald J. Trump has combined the full powers of the government to stop deadly drugs, opioids, and fentanyl from entering our country. As a result, drug overdose deaths decreased nationwide for the first time in nearly 30 years. Joe Biden has allowed drug cartels to wage war on America, steal innocent lives, and destroy our communities. President Trump will take down the drug cartels just like he took down ISIS. He would impose a total naval embargo on cartels, order the Department of Defense to inflict maximum damage on cartel leadership and operations, designate cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and destroy their access to the global financial system. President Trump will get the full cooperation of neighboring governments to dismantle the cartels, or else expose every bribe and kickback that allows these criminal networks to maintain their brutal reign. He will ask Congress to ensure that drug smugglers and traffickers receive the Death Penalty. Once President Trump returns to the White House, drug kingpins and evil traffickers will never sleep well again.

Reporting from Rolling Stone noted that Trump previously mentioned the death penalty and cartels in his 2024 campaign announcement speech, which took place on Nov. 15, 2022.

A few weeks before October 22, at a rally in Robstown, Texas, Trump recounted a supposed discussion he had with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. According to Trump, Jinping said, “When we catch a drug dealer, we give them a trial, fast, and if they are guilty, they are killed. Then they send the bullet to the family, and they want the family to pay for the cost of ammunition.” Trump’s rally crowd applauded this idea of ​​how to deal with such criminals. These sentences appear at the 16:07 mark in this C-SPAN video.

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