Donald Trump did a good deed. He found his pardon button and pardoned a great-grandmother who was serving a life-sentence for her first offense, a serious but non-violent drug crime. The commander-in-chief seems to believe that erases all the criminal things he allegedly did himself as he brags and preens on Twitter to deflect from the growing scandals around him.
In a morning tweet, Trump drew attention to that one good act, saying:
‘Good luck to Alice Johnson. Have a wonderful life!’
Of course, that pardon would not have happened unless reality TV star Kim Kardashian had not gone to the White House and made her case for Alice Johnson. In Trump world, the actress traded a day of her time and a photo op in exchange for him commuting that life sentence – a fair transaction.
Does this mean that Trump has changed his feelings about incarceration for drug crimes? No, of course not. After talking to the Philippines’ dictator, Rodrigo Duterte, the president said he believed that countries that impose the death penalty “don’t have much of a drug problem,” The Washington Post reported:
‘These people (drug dealers) kill thousands of people over the course of their lives through drugs. So we’re going to have to get much, much tougher in terms of penalty. And if you want to stop it — if you look at certain countries where they have, as an example, the death penalty, and say, “How’s your drug problem?’”And they will tell you, “We don’t have much of a drug problem.”‘
Johnson has begun her new life, and she has chosen to be an advocate for criminal justice reform. She did commit a serious crime, but the sentence far outweighed the crime.
Prison reform is a huge problem that was made worse by the U.S. privatizing the prison system. Instead, America should look to Germany’s ground-breaking work in that area, featured by CBS’ 60 Minutes.
Trump’s good deed may just be a warm up to pardoning his family members and even trying to pardon himself. Maybe, he thinks no one will notice after his flurry of pardons?
The Twitter world broke out of their silence on this issue. Check out some more of our favorite tweets below:
Featured Image via Getty Images/Brendan Smialowski.
