Trump for death penalty

President Donald Trump yesterday called for the man charged over the New York truck attack to be executed, after investigators said he confessed to being inspired by Islamic State group propaganda.

Trump had earlier said he was considering sending Sayfullo Saipov, 29, to the military's notorious Guantanamo Bay detention center, but backed off the idea in a blast of early morning tweets calling for the death penalty.

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

Saipov appeared in a New York federal courtroom Wednesday on terrorism charges after he allegedly drove a rented pickup truck down a mile-long stretch of bike path Tuesday in Lower Manhattan's West Side, where children and their parents were preparing to celebrate Halloween.

Eight people were killed, five of them friends from Argentina celebrating the 30th anniversary of their high school graduation.

Police shot Saipov in the abdomen after he allegedly ran over his victims and exited his truck brandishing fake guns.

Federal prosecutors have announced two charges so far: provision of material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and violence and destruction of motor vehicles.

The material support charge carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, but federal prosecutors can also seek the death penalty, although a capital punishment case would be extremely rare in New York.

The complaint said Saipov, an Uber driver and father-of-three who moved to the United States in 2010, confessed to acting in the name of IS and "felt good about what he had done," even demanding to hang an IS flag in his hospital room.

Saipov deliberately intended to attack on Halloween, determined to kill as many people as possible and believing that the streets would be more crowded for the holiday, authorities said.

A year ago, he first planned an attack in the United States, before settling two months ago on a vehicle strike, prosecutors said.

While investigators are still working round the clock, it appears Saipov only became radicalized after moving to America.

The New York Times reported that he arrived as a moderate Muslim, a university-educated accountant from a wealthy family and dreamt of making it in the US, but that life did not work out as he planned.

Instead he developed a violent temper, lost jobs and an imam worried he increasingly misinterpreted Islam, the Times said.

On Wednesday, Trump vowed to "get rid" of the green card lottery "as soon as possible," seizing on the New York to press his campaign-agenda of restricting immigration.