In 1962, Congress abolished the mandatory death penalty for Washington, D.C. One decade later, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down existing death penalty laws nationwide, forcing states to rewrite their laws. In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down mandatory death penalty laws. Five years later, Washington, D.C. formally rescinded its death penalty law. In 1992, D.C. voters rejected Congress’ attempt to bring back the death penalty.

Now, President Donald Trump says he is not only bringing back the death penalty for Washington, D.C. murder cases, but also making all murder cases capital punishment cases — directing prosecutors to seek the death penalty in each one.

“Anybody murders something in the capital, capital punishment. Capital, capital punishment,” Trump declared on Tuesday (video below) during his Cabinet meeting. “If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, D.C., we’re going to be seeking the death penalty.”

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“And that’s a very strong preventative, and everybody that’s heard it agrees with it,” Trump said.

Multiple studies show that capital punishment is not an effective deterrent to murder.

“I don’t know if we’re ready for it in this country, but when you have it, we have no choice,” Trump declared. “So in D.C. and Washington, states are going to have to make their own decision.”

Unlike in other jurisdictions, where state and local prosecutors prosecute violations of the law, violations of local Washington, D.C. ordinances are prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. D.C. does not currently have a death penalty ordinance.

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Trump’s announcement comes just one day after he declared that anyone who burns an American flag will be prosecuted and the government will seek a prison sentence, despite the U.S. Supreme Court having ruled that burning the flag is a protected First Amendment right.

Last week, the Pentagon authorized National Guard troops patrolling the streets of D.C. to carry firearms.

Watch the video below or at this link.

Trump: “Anybody murders something in the capital — capital punishment. Capital, capital punishment. If somebody kills somebody in the capital — Washington DC — we’re going to be seeking the death penalty.” pic.twitter.com/zDbQb2IGI7

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 26, 2025

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For the second day in a row, President Donald Trump insisted he is not a dictator, but also insisted that many Americans would like to have one running the country. Some critics are calling his remarks a “trial balloon.”

“So the line is that I’m a dictator — but I stop crime,” Trump said at his televised Cabinet meeting on Tuesday (video below). “So a lot of people say, ‘You know, if that’s the case, I’d rather have a dictator.’ But I’m not a dictator. I just know how to stop crime.”

Those remarks echo ones he made just one day earlier in the Oval Office while attacking Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker.

“I have some slob like Pritzker criticizing us before we even go there,” he said of his plan to deploy the National Guard to Chicago. “I made the statement that next should be Chicago, ’cause, as you all know, Chicago’s a killing field right now. And they don’t acknowledge it, and they say, ‘We don’t need him. Freedom, freedom. He’s a dictator, he’s a dictator.'”

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“A lot of people are saying, maybe we like a dictator,” Trump mused. “I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense and a smart person.”

Declaring that an American president “even suggesting that Americans want to do away with democracy and be ruled” by a dictator is “chilling,” Rolling Stone on Monday noted that “Trump has been ruling like an authoritarian since retaking office in January, repeatedly thumbing his nose at Congress, the Constitution, and any other check on presidential power.”

CNN’s Aaron Blake, even before Trump’s second “I’m not a dictator” attestation, wrote: “Many people are increasingly entertaining the idea of a dictator. They are his supporters.”

“They don’t necessarily say, ‘Yes, I want a dictator.’ But polling shows Republicans have edged in that direction – to a pretty remarkable degree.”

“Perhaps the most startling poll on this came last year,” Blake explained. “A University of Massachusetts Amherst survey asked about Trump’s comment that he wanted to be a dictator, but only for a day,” during the campaign. “Trump said it was a joke, but 74% of Republicans endorsed the idea.”

He noted that a “Pew Research Center poll early this year showed 59% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents agreed that many of the country’s problems could be better solved ‘if Donald Trump didn’t have to worry so much about Congress and the courts.'”

And, Blake added, “as many 3 or 4 in 10” Republicans, according to several polls, are “endorsing that kind of power.”

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Critics expressed outrage.

Journalist Ahmed Baba observed: “This is the second day in a row he’s said this. This is an intentional normalization effort.”

Journalist Aaron Rupar wrote, “note how Trump on a daily basis is trying to normalize the idea that he’s a dictator.”

Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) wrote: “Deploying the military to cities. Breaking laws. Attacking judges. Firing generals, economists, and central bankers who speak truth to power. Praising autocrats who hate America. Republican officials have given up on the rule of law. They obey the law of the ruler. But in America, law is king.”

Hedge fund manager Spencer Hakimian wrote: “You are all frogs in a boiling pot.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Trump: “The line is that I’m a dictator, but I stop crime. So a lot of people say, ‘You know, if that’s the case, I’d rather have a dictator.'” pic.twitter.com/YZlFDZs9lq

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 26, 2025

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After President Donald Trump asserted that the United States obtained a ten-percent stake in computer chip manufacturer Intel at no cost, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick now says the government should pursue similar deals with other major companies, a proposal some critics liken to communism.

“I paid zero for Intel, it is worth approximately 11 billion dollars,” Trump wrote in his signature all-caps style on Monday. “All goes to the USA. Why are ‘stupid’ people unhappy with that? I will make deals like that for our Country all day long. I will also help those companies that make such lucrative deals with the United States States. I love seeing their stock price go up, making the USA RICHER, AND RICHER. More jobs for America!!! Who would not want to make deals like that?”

According to The New York Times, “the government is set to give Intel $8.9 billion — the remainder of the amount that was earmarked for the U.S. chipmaker as part of the bipartisan CHIPS Act, which President Joseph R. Biden Jr. signed into law.”

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Appearing on CNBC on Tuesday, Secretary Lutnick was asked, if the Intel deal is acceptable, what about defense companies?

“Why shouldn’t the U.S. government say, ‘You know what? We use Palantir services. We would like a piece of Palantir. We use Boeing services, we would like a piece of Boeing,'” host Andrew Ross Sorkin asked. “There are a lot of businesses that do business with the U.S. government that benefit by doing business with the U.S. government. I guess the question is, where’s the line?”

Secretary Lutnick said, “there’s a monstrous discussion about defense.”

“I mean, Lockheed Martin makes 97% of their revenue from the U.S. government. They are basically an arm of the U.S. government,” Lutnick said. “They make exquisite munitions. I mean, amazing things that can knock a missile out of the air when it’s coming towards you.”

He noted that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and his deputy “are on it, and they’re thinking about it, but I tell you what, there’s a lot of talking that needs to be had about how do we finance our munitions acquisitions?”

“I tell you the way it has been done” in the past, “has been a giveaway.”

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Describing it as “a roughly $9 billion deal,” CNBC reported that “Trump’s move to take ownership of a chunk of Intel, an embattled chipmaker, is a major escalation in his efforts to achieve his economic goals by exerting more and more government control over the private economy.”

CNBC also noted that “the move has drawn heated criticism — including from some conservatives, who warn that Trump’s action cuts against free-market principles and poses risks for both Intel and the economy.”

Critics blasted the nearly unprecedented policy of having the federal government own a portion of major corporations, something that previously was done only in times of crisis, like a national emergency or the 2008 global financial meltdown.

“Quick question for the ‘it can’t happen here’ folks. What other forms of government nationalized companies?” asked Fred Wellman, host of “On Democracy.”

“What do we call reactionary nationalism plus economic socialism?” posited political analyst Armin Thomas.

“A nation owning its weapons producers is hardly unprecedented but like … what’s the point?” asked technologist Matt Spence, a former U.S. Senate advisor. “Have they articulated a goal that taking a stake in these companies will accomplish?”

Responding to Lutnick’s Intel announcement last week, GOP strategist Mike Madrid asked, “What’s it called when the government owns the means of production?”

“Crazy,” declared former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. “When will conservatives start criticizing these obvious communist policies by Trump?”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Howard Lutnick on CNBC indicates that the Trump administration will try to partially nationalize defense companies like Lockheed Martin pic.twitter.com/dYAbZPtcwu

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 26, 2025

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