Trump faces harsh critiques after signing executive orders to end cashless bail–a policy that benefits Black, brown and poor defendants

“Trump keeps talking about cracking down on crime, yet the biggest crime is happening right in the Oval Office,” said NAACP President Derrick Johnson.

President Donald Trump on Monday signed executive orders aiming to end cash bail across the United States, beginning in Washington, D.C., where he seeks to show his enduring dominance amid his declared crime emergency in the nation’s capital.

Cashless bail, a system intended to remove poverty barriers for defendants who do not pose a risk to the community, is part of a number of bail reform policies established in states like New York, New Jersey, California and Illinois. Washington, D.C., replaced cash bail in D.C.’s criminal justice system with mostly cashless bail in 1992.

One of the executive orders signed by Trump calls for U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to identify jurisdictions across the country that have cashless bail policies. It gives the U.S. Department of Justice authority to hold or revoke federal funds and grants for jurisdictions that do not ensure “reasonable, common sense policy,” said a White House official.

Another executive order specifically targets D.C., instructing the DOJ to review D.C.’s cashless bail policies to determine whether defendants poses a “clear threat to public safety and order.” The order also seeks to press D.C. to change its cashless bail policies.

Before signing the executive orders inside the Oval Office on Monday, Trump suggested that cashless bail was a contributing factor to his repeated claims of spikes in crime in D.C. and around the country, despite local leaders citing record lows in crime.

“Somebody kills somebody. They go in, don’t worry about it. No cash. Come back in a couple of months. We’ll give you a trial. You never see the person again. And I mean, they kill people and they get out,” said Trump. The president continued, “They thought it was discriminatory to make people put up money, because they just killed three people lying on the street, any street all over the country. Cashless bail, we’re ending it. But we’re starting by ending it in D.C., and that we have the right to do through federalization.”

According to a report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, there were stark racial disparities regarding cash bail that impacted Black and Latino defendants between 1970 and 2015. Black and brown individuals saw higher detention rates and financial conditions of release imposed them compared to white defendants, the commission found. The report concluded that more than 60% of defendants are detained pre-trial because they can’t afford to post bail.

The Bail Project argues that because of a lack of data and reporting from states on cash bail and their relation to court outcomes, “the core rationale of cash bail, that a deposit is needed to ensure people will return to court, is purely speculative.”

“Trump is breaking the levels of racial justice in DC’s legal system and holding a ‘funding gun’ to the heads of other city leaders to do the same,” Markus Batchelor, a D.C. native and political director at People For the American Way, told theGrio.

Batchelor continued, “This shift to incarcerate people who can’t pay is totally in line with Trump’s attacks on Black people, the working poor, and the unhoused. It’s a ploy to fill up jails with Americans presumed innocent under law while enriching his friends building private prisons.”

Trump’s executive orders on cashless bail comes amid his federal crackdown in D.C., which has included the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops and surging federal law enforcement to assist D.C.’s local police. The president has also threatened to send military troops to other majority Black and brown cities like Chicago and Baltimore, escalating political clashes with Democratic governors and mayors, including Govs. Wes Moore, J.B. Pritzker, Gavin Newsom and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Trump on Monday said D.C. is “probably the safest place in our country” after his federal actions in the nation’s capital. The president said Democrats “better get smart” on crime, adding, “These people are sick.”

In response to Trump’s executive actions related to crime, NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement, “We’re still waiting for Trump’s executive order to release the Epstein files. Where is that one? Trump keeps talking about cracking down on crime, yet the biggest crime is happening right in the Oval Office.”

Johnson said the president “doesn’t even have the authority to end cashless bail since it’s a local issue.” He continued, “The truth is, this isn’t about addressing crime; it’s about consolidating power and keeping poor people in jail to maximize the profits of private prisons.”

The civil rights leader added, “Trump isn’t after justice — he’s after us. If Trump needs something to do, he should focus on the job numbers and the economy he’s tanking because of his failed policies, and stop wasting our time with these distractions.”

Gerren Keith Gaynor is a White House Correspondent and the Managing Editor of Politics at theGrio. He is based in Washington, D.C. He covers the White House, Capitol Hill, and national politics.