Former President Donald Trump bragged during an interview with Fox News this week about pardoning a drug dealer during his time as president, but was left speechless after being informed that his new proposed drug policy would see them executed.
While speaking with Fox News’ Brett Baier on Monday, the former president applauded himself for commuting the sentence of Alice Johnson in 2018, who served 21 years of a life sentence in prison for her involvement in a cocaine ring.
Trump, who is the current Republican frontrunner for the 2023 presidential race, even featured Johnson in a Super Bowl ad while touting his 2020 campaign.
Yet Baier was quick to remind Trump of his repeated calls for using the death penalty against drug dealers, a policy that would have seen Johnson put to death.
“But she’d be killed under your plan,” Baier said.
In response, Trump was left flabbergasted as he seemingly failed to recognize the connection.
“Huh?” the former president said.
After being reminded of his proposed policy, Trump fumbled before arguing that the death penalty would only be applied on a case-by-case basis.
“No, no, no,” Trump replied. “Under my? Oh, under that? Uhhh… it would depend on the severity.”
“I’ve never seen Trump think about something before lmaoo,” wrote one user, noting it appears Trump actually contemplated the query.
Trump went on to defend the contradiction by noting that Johnson wouldn’t have been executed only because his policy was not in place at the time of the pardon.
When announcing his plans to run for president in November, Trump specifically stated that he would ask Congress to draft a bill allowing the death penalty for “everyone who sells drugs, gets caught selling drugs.”
