UPDATE 3 November 2017

When Peace Nobel Prize laureate, law professor and then president of the United States Barack Obama made this statement in 2011 at a fundraiser in San Francisco, he was not conscious that his casual conversation was caught on camera. It did not go immediately viral but was an embarrassment, for sure. It was about Chelsea Manning who had just been relocated from the Marine Corps base in Quantico to another prison facility at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Manning was still waiting for her trial for leaking hundred of thousands classified documents to WikiLeaks, and the president and commander in chief uttered his personal opinion about her. Manning’s sentence to 35 years in military prison was commuted by Obama as his last act in office.

Today, Obama’s successor in the White House prejudged the suspect of Tuesday’s New York terror attack and called for his transfer to Gitmo and execution.

Would love to send the NYC terrorist to Guantanamo but statistically that process takes much longer than going through the Federal system…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2017

…There is also something appropriate about keeping him in the home of the horrible crime he committed. Should move fast. DEATH PENALTY!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2017

Regarding Sgt Bowe Bergdahl, who deserted his outpost in Afghanistan in 2009 and was immediately abducted by Taliban insurgents who kept him partly in a cage and tortured him until, in 2014, he was released in a controversially discussed prisoner swap in exchange of five Taliban Gitmo inmates, Donald Trump is of the opinion that he is a “dirty rotten traitor” and should be executed.

“30 years ago he would have been shot.” “You probably can’t do it, but if I win I may just have him flown back in the middle of that place and dropped, right in the middle. Let them have him, let him have them. That’s cheaper than a bullet,” Trump said at an October 2015 campaign rally. One month later Trump uttered a firing squad should be used to execute Bergdahl.

The New York Times expects that Bergdahl, who right now stands trial for desertion in Fort Bragg, N.C., will receive a lighter sentence due to Trump’s remarks. Let’s hope that’s true.

Trump’s shooting himself in his foot, as usual.

2 November 2017 @ 5:10 pm.

UPDATE 3 November 2017. Sgt. Bergdahl won’t serve time in prison. The sentence is a $10,000 fine, dishonorable discharge and reduced to private rank.