Trump Signs Executive Order Seeking To Expand Use Of Death Penalty

The newly inaugurated president's directive fulfills a key part of Project 2025's right-wing mandate for his administration.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday night calling for the dramatic expansion of the use of the federal death penalty.

The directive calls on the attorney general to pursue the federal death penalty “for all crimes of a severity demanding its use,” particularly in cases involving the killing of law enforcement officers and capital crimes “committed by an alien illegally present in this country.”

Trump frequently blames immigrants for violent crime in the U.S., despite studies showing that they are not more likely than native-born Americans to commit crimes. During campaign rallies, Trump described migrants as “animals” who were “poisoning the blood of our country” ― dehumanizing language that is reminiscent of Nazi rhetoric.

The executive order also calls for the “Overruling of Supreme Court Precedents That Hinder Capital Punishment,” likely a reference to Supreme Court rulings in 1977 and 2008 that held that carrying out the death penalty for rape would violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Project 2025, the conservative policy blueprint for Trump’s second term, called for using the death penalty in cases involving violence toward or sexual abuse of children. In a footnote, the author wrote that this would require the Supreme Court to overrule itself, “but the [Justice] department should place a priority on doing so.”

During the 2008 case, which involved the rape of a child, several groups for survivors of sexual assault urged against the death penalty, arguing it would interfere with young victims’ healing process. The case ended in a 5-4 decision; three of the four justices who voted to allow the death penalty as punishment for child sexual assault are still on the Supreme Court, as well as three additional conservative justices. Last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill allowing the death penalty in state child rape convictions.