Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

mahatmakanejeeves

(66,841 posts)
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 05:26 AM Friday

Trump signs memo ordering the enforcement of the death penalty in D.C.

Source: Washington Post

D.C.
Trump signs memo ordering the enforcement of the death penalty in D.C.

The president Thursday directed Attorney General Pam Bondi and U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro to use federal law to pursue capital punishment cases in the city.

September 25, 2025 at 11:22 p.m. EDT Yesterday at 11:22 p.m. EDT
3 min


President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)

By Michael Laris and Jenny Gathright

President Donald Trump instructed top prosecutors in a memo on Thursday to pursue the death penalty "to the maximum degree practicable" in D.C., marking his latest move to exert control over law enforcement in the city.

{snip}

By Michael Laris
Michael Laris is a reporter on The Washington Post's local enterprise team. He previously covered national transportation issues and was a reporter in Beijing.follow on X@mikelaris
https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/michael-laris/

By Jenny Gathright
Jenny Gathright covers the D.C. government and city politics on The Post's Metro desk. Before coming to The Post in 2024, she reported on the District for WAMU 88.5 and DCist.com, mostly about criminal justice and public safety.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/jenny-gathright/

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/09/25/trump-death-penalty-dc/



https://wtop.com/government/2025/09/as-trump-seeks-death-penalty-in-dc-bondi-says-administration-also-wants-it-across-the-country/

As Trump seeks death penalty in DC, Bondi says administration also wants it across the country

CNN
September 25, 2025, 6:02 PM

(CNN) — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a presidential memorandum seeking to reinstate the death penalty in Washington, DC, as Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the Justice Department will be seeking capital punishment across the country.

“The death penalty in Washington,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “You kill somebody, or if you kill a police officer, law enforcement officer — death penalty. And hopefully they won’t do that.”

“It’s a very interesting capital punishment, capital city. Capital, capital, capital,” he added.

{snip
34 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Trump signs memo ordering the enforcement of the death penalty in D.C. (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Friday OP
Maybe he will be the first victim of this order? chicoescuela Friday #1
Well, he is a convicted felon. ananda Friday #17
Guilotine execution homegirl Friday #21
Oh my chicoescuela Friday #22
I wouldn't even give him the dignity of that AdamGG Friday #27
French revolution time. Just like for Louis and Marie ...... Trueblue1968 Friday #34
Without actual legal due process in the Judaical courts.................. Lovie777 Friday #2
What could be scarier than Jeanine Pirro with the goal of killing you? no_hypocrisy Friday #3
I'm shocked that a directive to erect a gallows wasn't part of this order... EarthFirst Friday #4
He can finish the job.... SergeStorms Friday #18
Don't give him any ideas! hueymahl Friday #26
If you tried to kill a police officer during Jan 6th you will be pardoned and honored. tetedur Friday #5
Key word in understanding ANY Republican is: popsdenver Friday #12
Nope. Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein,Epstein. Buddyzbuddy Friday #6
He really is a sick pathologically driven man who is trying to hide his part in an international child sex ... Botany Friday #7
So, he's still got erection after calling for the execution of the Central Park 5...? Grins Friday #8
Trump loves his meaningless strongman gestures. Renew Deal Friday #9
Killing people. All-time Dictator fave. Turbineguy Friday #10
No arrest, no trial , just executions. Trump. twodogsbarking Friday #11
Many of his treasonous crimes have been committed in DC. QueerDuck Friday #13
First the escalator guy and then the telepromter guy. twodogsbarking Friday #14
WTF is with MAGA and their execution fetish? Initech Friday #15
I confess, a would execute many given the chance, but primarily for sedition thomski64 Friday #20
they're CHRISTIAN and PRO-LIFE dontcha know!! Skittles Friday #32
He's a murderous pig. EPSTEIN. MAXWELL. TRUMP. Hekate Friday #16
Step by step by step Cirsium Friday #19
Turning up the temp of the H20, little by little by little by little ReRe Friday #33
Some people write a memo to remind themselves to pick up milk. Trump writes them to kill people. Vinca Friday #23
Not sure, but I don't think that's his job. JohnnyRingo Friday #24
You mean like Jan 6 rioters...right JT45242 Friday #25
Good luck getting a DC jury of 12 to unanimously apply the death penalty Justice Brandeis Friday #28
"As Trump seeks death penalty in DC, Bondi says administration also wants it across the country " riversedge Friday #29
Really Lemon Lyman Friday #30
People say that markodochartaigh Friday #31

AdamGG

(1,792 posts)
27. I wouldn't even give him the dignity of that
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 05:21 PM
Friday

Deport him to South Sudan or Uganda and let them report that he died in custody of unknown causes. Or, place him on a boat in the Caribbean and have the air force blow it up and sink it.

Lovie777

(20,458 posts)
2. Without actual legal due process in the Judaical courts..................
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 05:31 AM
Friday

shithole and his henchmen/hench-women can now decide who lives and who dies.

Enough already. These people are nuts.

no_hypocrisy

(53,178 posts)
3. What could be scarier than Jeanine Pirro with the goal of killing you?
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 05:33 AM
Friday

So, the moral of the story is that if you kill someone, do it anywhere but D.C.

EarthFirst

(3,833 posts)
4. I'm shocked that a directive to erect a gallows wasn't part of this order...
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 05:45 AM
Friday

…complete with a VIP viewing box section.

SergeStorms

(19,779 posts)
18. He can finish the job....
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 02:32 PM
Friday

he wanted to start with Mike Pence. "Psssst.....Mike! Stay the hell out of D.C. or the dipshit you admired sooooo much will hang your ass."

Buddyzbuddy

(1,549 posts)
6. Nope. Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, Epstein,Epstein.
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 06:55 AM
Friday

Question, do you think his granddaughters are allowed to sit on grandpa's lap? If so 'til what age?
Would any pre-teen daughters of the administration be left in the same room, alone with IT. Or their wives, for that matter? He has immunity and they let you do stuff when you're a celebrity.
Nice try, but it's still about Epstein, you pervy creep.

Botany

(75,364 posts)
7. He really is a sick pathologically driven man who is trying to hide his part in an international child sex ...
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 07:07 AM
Friday

….. trafficking ring and he is bringing up the non issue of the use of the death penalty in D.C. cases
in order to divert attention from Epstein. Meanwhile he is stealing billions of dollars from the U.S.
taxpayers. https://democraticunderground.com/10143536495

Btw he “won” because they were deleting Harris votes and adding votes to Trump by the millions.

Grins

(8,898 posts)
8. So, he's still got erection after calling for the execution of the Central Park 5...?
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 09:52 AM
Friday

And DC has a lot of people of color...

The "pro-life" crowd will probably love it. And never see the contradictions...

Renew Deal

(84,502 posts)
9. Trump loves his meaningless strongman gestures.
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 10:13 AM
Friday

This doesn't change any actual laws. It's just words.

Initech

(106,407 posts)
15. WTF is with MAGA and their execution fetish?
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 01:35 PM
Friday

Normal people don't fantasize about executing others, this is insane!

Cirsium

(2,901 posts)
19. Step by step by step
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 02:33 PM
Friday

Yet we still have people here saying "but he's losing court cases, and we have the midterms coming!"

Back 6 months ago I posted excerpts from[i They Thought They Were Free] by Milton Mayer. Many thought was alarmist, that "things are not that bad here." I went back and looked at them today, and they seem tame now. That is how much things have changed in the last few months.

"To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it—please try to believe me—unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’ that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘little measures’ that no ‘patriotic German’ could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head."

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it."

"And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this, and you can’t prove it. These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you know for sure when you don’t know the end, and how do you know, or even surmise, the end? On the one hand, your enemies, the law, the regime, the Party, intimidate you. On the other, your colleagues pooh-pooh you as pessimistic or even neurotic. You are left with your close friends, who are, naturally, people who have always thought as you have."

"But your friends are fewer now. Some have drifted off somewhere or submerged themselves in their work. You no longer see as many as you did at meetings or gatherings. Informal groups become smaller; attendance drops off in little organizations, and the organizations themselves wither. Now, in small gatherings of your oldest friends, you feel that you are talking to yourselves, that you are isolated from the reality of things. This weakens your confidence still further and serves as a further deterrent to—to what? It is clearer all the time that, if you are going to do anything, you must make an occasion to do it, and then you are obviously a troublemaker. So you wait, and you wait."

"But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked—if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in ’43 had come immediately after the ‘German Firm’ stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in ’33. But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D."

ReRe

(12,029 posts)
33. Turning up the temp of the H20, little by little by little by little
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 06:21 PM
Friday

until we are all cooked.. We need to turn the stove off NOW. The imbeciles don't realize they are in the same pot with everyone else!

Vinca

(52,737 posts)
23. Some people write a memo to remind themselves to pick up milk. Trump writes them to kill people.
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 03:50 PM
Friday

JohnnyRingo

(20,172 posts)
24. Not sure, but I don't think that's his job.
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 04:04 PM
Friday

Maybe it's a unique situation because it's not state.
So far this week, he's taken over a prosecutor, Attorney General, judge, and jury.

JT45242

(3,638 posts)
25. You mean like Jan 6 rioters...right
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 04:13 PM
Friday

Coconspirator in a criminal act that resulted in one or more deaths.

Please Mango, I'll forgo my normal opposition to the death penalty for all the Jan 6 rioters

Justice Brandeis

(304 posts)
28. Good luck getting a DC jury of 12 to unanimously apply the death penalty
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 05:22 PM
Friday

but by all means go ahead and try.

riversedge

(77,946 posts)
29. "As Trump seeks death penalty in DC, Bondi says administration also wants it across the country "
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 05:30 PM
Friday

I am not a believer in the death penalty.

Lemon Lyman

(1,507 posts)
30. Really
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 05:36 PM
Friday

Did he also sign an EO that allows him to pick and choose whomever he wants to sentence to death? Maybe that'll be next week.

markodochartaigh

(4,146 posts)
31. People say that
Fri Sep 26, 2025, 06:03 PM
Friday

Trump could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose supporters.

This is wrong.

If Trump shot someone on 5th Avenue he would solidify his support, gin them up.
In fact he did the presidential equivalent of that, he ramped up executions of federal prisoners before the election in 2020 exactly to gin up support from his base.

Latest Discussions»Latest Breaking News»Trump signs memo ordering...