
During his 2020 presidential campaign, Donald Trump attacked Joe Biden from the left on criminal justice, highlighting the Democrat's long history of supporting draconian drug penalties that disproportionately hurt African Americans. Now Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reportedly is planning to attack Trump from the right on criminal justice, highlighting the former president's support for the FIRST STEP Act, a package of modest reforms that Trump signed in 2018.
The New York Times, citing unnamed sources close to DeSantis, reports that his expected campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination will portray Trump as soft on crime. That prospect does not bode well for the future of debates about crime and punishment within the Republican Party, which seems to be reverting to the mindlessly punitive mentality that the FIRST STEP Act challenged.