Trump wants “death squads” in the US to round up criminals on the streets, claims a Rolling Stone reporter.

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

MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire interviewed Asawin Suebsaeng about an article he wrote with fellow Rolling Stone senior political reporter Tim Dickinson titled “America’s Death Squads: Inside Trump’s Efforts to Increase Police Violence.”

Trump spoke about crime at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, last Sunday, suggesting that a short, strong period of law enforcement could drastically reduce crime in America.

“In one difficult hour – and I mean really difficult hour – the news will get out and it will be over immediately, you know? It will end immediately,” Trump said.

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MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire interviewed Asawin Suebsaeng about an article he published with Rolling Stone’s other senior political reporter, Tim Dickinson, titled “America’s Death Squads: Insider on Trump’s Efforts to Make Policing More Aggressive.”

“So not only did Trump watch the movie ‘The Purge’ on the flight to this rally, but there is some merit to this proposal,” Lemire said, speaking to Suebsaeng about his article. – Tell us what you found.

The Rolling Stone reporter said that Trump’s statement was “definitely not a one-time rhetorical thing” and that “he and his top ideological supporters have shown over the years, including during his administration, including during the current campaign, that we want to support the full force of the Department Justice, Executive and Federal Government.”

Suebsaeng claimed that, according to insiders in the Trump White House, the former president had outbursts and demanded a crackdown on criminals.

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“During his presidency, according to our sources, he repeatedly punched the Resolute desk in the Oval Office and demanded, ‘Why don’t the police shoot all kinds of people?’ street criminals and drug dealers and dumping their bodies on American streets, which could send a very grim message to gangs and any other suspected criminals in America?” – said the reporter.

“He did it so often and so verbosely that some administration officials called it our ‘American death squads’ idea, largely influenced by his admiration for what Rodrigo Duterte had done in the Philippines,” he added.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump ends a rally at Saginaw Valley State University on October 3, 2024 in Saginaw, Michigan. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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The reporter admitted that death squads “may not” be created, but emphasized the importance of even such a possibility.

“Is it possible that Trump, re-elected to a second term, could achieve exactly this result? No, maybe not. “But the point is that he wants to get as close to it as possible, which is an unusual thing for a modern American to be president,” he said.

Suebsaeng then claimed that in late 2020, Trump “toyed with the idea of ​​withdrawing federal funds from various states and cities that were not ‘pro-police’ enough as he liked, or did not allow police to tame a sufficient degree of abusive behavior or even alleged bias racial. “He threatened to withdraw federal funds if they didn’t do what he wanted.”

He further claimed that Trump “has been talking to people recently about using the pardon power to excuse various officials when people have been charged at the federal level.”

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“There are a lot of things that his second administration would be planning with the Department of Justice, using the power of the executive branch to try to make the police in this country as cartoonishly brutal as people 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 a law-and-order president and continues to reiterate the importance of enforcing existing laws. Otherwise, we are dealing with total anarchy, which Kamala Harris has created in some countries. these communities across America, especially when she was attorney general of California, when she emboldened criminals. Now it has allowed criminals and terrorists to cross the border unchecked, wreaking havoc across communities.”