August 27, 2025 | 10:23 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - United States President Donald Trump has announced that his administration will enforce the death penalty in every murder case that occurs in Washington, DC. The death penalty is one of the tough measures implemented in the nation's capital to combat crime.
Trump announced this during a cabinet meeting themed for Labor Day on Tuesday, July 26, 2025, as he discussed various issues, from weapon sales to the rising cost of living. "Anybody murders something in the capital: capital punishment. Capital punishment," Trump said as quoted from an Al Jazeera report.
"If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, DC, we’re going to be seeking the death penalty. And that’s a very strong preventative, and everybody that’s heard it agrees with it."
Trump then acknowledged that the policy is likely controversial, but he vowed to push forward. "I don’t know if we’re ready for it in this country, but we have no choice," Trump said. "States are gonna have to make their own decision."
Death Penalty Abandoned by Biden, Revived by Trump
During the administration of former President Joe Biden, the death penalty was abandoned. Under the Democratic leadership, the Department of Justice issued a moratorium halting the death penalty while reviewing its policies.
Biden campaigned with a promise to abolish the death penalty. Biden argued that more than 160 people executed between 1973 and 2020 were later exonerated.
Although Biden ultimately did not abolish the federal death penalty, in one of his final acts as president, he commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal inmates on death row.
In a statement last December, he anticipated that the second Trump administration would actively enforce the death penalty for federal cases. "In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted," Biden wrote.
When Trump took office for his second term on January 20, 2025, one of his first executive orders was to reinstate the death penalty. "Capital punishment is an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal violence against American citizens," Trump wrote in the order.
"Our Founders knew well that only capital punishment can bring justice and restore order in response to such evil."
In the days leading up to his inauguration, Trump again promised to impose the death penalty. He criticized Biden for his decision to commute the sentences of most federal death row inmates.
"As soon as I am inaugurated, I will direct the Justice Department to vigorously pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. "We will be a Nation of Law and Order again!"
In his speech, he asked Congress to pass a law making the death penalty mandatory for the murder of a law enforcement officer in the U.S. During his first term in office, from 2017 to 2021, Trump expedited the implementation of the death penalty at the federal level.
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