"I'm thrilled to announce my support for this bipartisan bill that will make our communities safer and give former inmates a second chance at life after they have served their time."
Trump signed the First Step Act — a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill that reduced mandatory minimums for nonviolent drug offenses, made the Fair Sentencing Act retroactive, expanded earned time credits, banned shackling of pregnant inmates. The Senate passed it 87-12. Not a single Democrat voted against it. First major criminal justice reform in nearly a decade.
Covered at signing with moderate fanfare, then essentially disappeared within a week. The dominant narrative frame — authoritarian, racist — had no structural room for a bill that freed thousands of nonviolent Black and brown federal prisoners. By 2024, neither party made the First Step Act a centerpiece.
A bill that demonstrably reduced mass incarceration, passed with 87 Senate votes, was dissolved by the press within a week because it didn't fit. The story they were telling about Trump had no place for it. The narrative frame determines what counts as a story and what gets treated as noise.