President Donald Trump allegedly said he considered drug traffickers to be as bad as serial killers and would “love to have a law” that would allow execution of drug dealers in the United States, a source told the Axios under the condition of anonymity Sunday.

The report also stated that the president admitted that it would be nearly impossible to bring such a law in place; however, the head of the state may support a legislation that requires a minimum five-year sentence for drug dealers who sell even a minimum of two grams of fentanyl.

There has been a significant rise in the number of fatal drug overdoses in North America. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), opioids were accountable for more than 33, 000 deaths in the U.S. alone in the year 2015.

The CDC also states that opioids are 50 times more effective than heroin and a 100 times stronger than morphine.

The Axios report said Trump told his associates that drug dealers should fear for their lives. He also mentioned countries like Singapore and Philippines where drug offenders face a death sentence.

White House senior official Kellyanne Conway, who is working as the counselor to the president, told the Axios that Trump referred to the drug dealers who sell substances that cause thousands of deaths when he spoke about executing drug offenders.

"The president makes a distinction between those that are languishing in prison for low-level drug offenses and the kingpins hauling thousands of lethal doses of fentanyl into communities, that are responsible for many casualties in a single weekend," she told the Axios.

During his State of the Union address last month, Trump had said that the U.S. must get “much tougher on drug dealers and pushers” so that it can put an end to the opioid epidemic in the country.

Trump’s comments about drug dealers were quite similar to that of the controversial Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte who had even authorized the Philippine police to execute drug dealers.

A senior Trump administration official, under the condition of anonymity, told the Axios that the president "often jokes about killing drug dealers.”

"He'll say, 'You know the Chinese and Filipinos don't have a drug problem. They just kill them,'" the unnamed official said.

“[Trump] says, 'When I ask the prime minister of Singapore do they have a drug problem' [the prime minister replies,] 'No. The death penalty,'" a source told the Axios.

In July last year when Duterte was sworn in as the 16th president of Philippines, he had vowed to wipe out all the drug offenders and corrupt people.

"If you're into drugs, I'm sorry. I'll have to apologize to your family because you'll surely get killed,” he said at the time.

"These sons of whores are destroying our children. I warn you, don’t go into that, even if you’re a policeman because I will really kill you. If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful." Duterte was quoted as saying after his swearing-in ceremony.

More than 12,000 people have been killed in the Philippines in drug operations since Duterte took office in June 2016, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.