During the event, the president also veered off into a list of other topics, including North Korea, his distaste for the news media, and his own election victory 16 months ago.

Trump made the statement during a rally Saturday meant to bolster a struggling GOP candidate for a US House seat in this conservative western Pennsylvania district

MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — President Trump has again called for subjecting convicted drug dealers to the death penalty.

Trump said that allowing prosecutors to seek the death penalty for drug dealers — an idea he said he got from Chinese President Xi Jinping — is ‘‘a discussion we have to start thinking about. I don’t know if this country’s ready for it.’’


‘‘Do you think the drug dealers who kill thousands of people during their lifetime, do you think they care who’s on a blue-ribbon committee?’’ Trump asked. ‘‘The only way to solve the drug problem is through toughness. When you catch a drug dealer, you’ve got to put him away for a long time.’’

It was not the first time Trump had suggested executing drug dealers. Earlier this month, he described it as a way to fight the opioid epidemic. The Trump administration is considering policy changes to allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

But on Saturday, his call for executing drug dealers got some of the most enthusiastic cheers of the night. As Trump spoke about capital punishment policies in China and Singapore, dozens of people nodded their heads in agreement.

‘‘We love Trump,’’ one man yelled. A woman shouted: ‘‘Pass it!’’

Trump was officially here to inject some last-minute political capital behind Republican Rick Saccone, whose race against Democrat Conor Lamb could be a harbinger of the Republican Party’s prospects in the midterms.

But Trump quickly steered away from his main objective. He touted his decision to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and boasted that it was something his predecessors couldn’t do.


Trump also delivered a profane attack on the news media, including NBC and CNN. And he claimed that 52 percent of women voted for him in his presidential win (it was 52 percent of white women, according to exit polling).

Trump talked up his decision last week to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports — a move deeply opposed by congressional Republicans yet popular in this Pittsburgh suburb, the heart of steel country.

Both candidates in the special election to fill the seat vacated by Tim Murphy, a Republican, back the president’s decision on the import duties.

Public polling ahead of the Tuesday election has shown Saccone neck-and-neck with Lamb, a former federal prosecutor and Marine.

Trump rarely mentioned Saccone during the first portion of the rally, saying he believed the candidate was ‘‘handsome’’ and deriding the Democrat as ‘‘Lamb the sham.’’

But Trump acknowledged that Saccone was in a ‘‘tough race’’ and urged his supporters to come out and vote. ‘‘We need our congressman, Saccone. We have to have him,’’ he said.

‘‘Go out, vote for Rick. He’ll never, never disappoint you,’’ Trump said. ‘‘Vote with your heart, vote with your brains. This is an extraordinary man.’’