Trump wants ‘death squads’ in US ‘piling up’ criminals in streets, Rolling Stone reporter says

A Rolling Stone reporter argued Friday that former President Trump wishes he could have “death squads” of police to shoot criminals and pile their bodies in the streets.

MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire interviewed Asawin Suebsaeng about a piece he wrote with fellow Rolling Stone senior politics reporter Tim Dickinson headlined, “‘American Death Squads’: Inside Trump’s Push to Make Police More Violent.”

Trump spoke about crime at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, this past Sunday, suggesting that a brief, decisive period of law enforcement could drastically reduce crime in America. 

“One rough hour — and I mean real rough — the word will get out and it will end immediately, you know? It will end immediately,” Trump said.

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MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire interviewed Asawin Suebsaeng about a piece he published with fellow Rolling Stone senior politics reporter Tim Dickinson headlined, “‘American Death Squads’: Inside Trump’s Push to Make Police More Violent.”

“So it wasn’t just that Trump saw the film ‘The Purge’ on his flight there heading to that rally, there’s some teeth to this proposal,” Lemire said as he spoke to Suebsaeng about his piece. “Tell us what you found.”

The Rolling Stone reporter said that this statement from Trump was “definitely not a rhetorical one-off thing,” and that “he and his chief ideological lieutenants have shown over the years, including during his administration, including during this current campaign, that they want to back up with the full force of the Department of Justice, the executive branch, and the federal government.”

Suebsaeng claimed that according to insiders from the Trump White House, the former president had outbursts demanding crackdowns on criminals. 

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“During his presidency, there would be multiple times where, according to our sources, he would be doing things like banging his fist on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and demanding that, ‘Why aren’t the police going around shooting all kinds of street criminals and drug dealers and piling up their bodies on American streets, so it can send a very grim message to gangs and all kinds of other suspected criminals in America?’” the reporter claimed. 

“He did this so often and so garrulously that there were some administration officials who referred to it to us as his ‘American death squads’ idea, which was something highly influenced by his admiration of what Rodrigo Duterte did in the Philippines,” he added.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump concludes a rally at Saginaw Valley State University on October 03, 2024 in Saginaw, Michigan.  (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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The reporter conceded that death squads “maybe” won’t happen, but emphasized the significance of even the possibility. 

“Is it possible that a second term, re-elected Trump could get exactly that? No, maybe not. But the point is, he wants to get to as close to that as humanly possible, which is a remarkable thing for a modern American presidency,” he said.

Suebsaeng then claimed that in late 2020, Trump “toyed with the idea of pulling federal funding from different states and cities that were not sufficiently ‘pro-cop’ enough for his liking, or didn’t let the police get away with enough degrees of abusive behavior or even alleged racial bias. He’d threaten to pull federal funding if they didn’t do those things to his liking.” 

He claimed further that Trump “has talked to people recently about using pardon powers to excuse different officers, where people have been federally charged with things.”

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“There’s all kinds of things that his second administration would be planning with the Department of Justice, with the power of the executive branch, to try to make police in this country as cartoonishly violent as men like Donald Trump would like them to be,” the Rolling Stone reporter said. 

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung responded to Fox News Digital, “President Trump has always been the law and order president and he continues to reiterate the importance of enforcing existing laws. Otherwise it’s all-out anarchy, which is what Kamala Harris has created in some of these communities across America, especially during her time as California attorney general when she emboldened criminals. Now she has allowed criminals and terrorists cross the border unchecked, wreaking havoc throughout communities.”