I Think The President Wants Us Dead

An analysis of recent behavior.

I take no pleasure in telling you this, but Donald Trump is repeatedly taking actions that indicate he is interested in the death of his citizens. Sometimes in big ways, like letting RFK Jr. “go wild on health,” but also in small ways such as… um…

After consulting my notes, it appears he’s actually just doing big ones. I guess that says something about the amount of power held by THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! Lest we forget that the most powerful man in the world is a soon-to-be octogenarian, gleefully tearing apart any shred of dignity left in that highest office. He would be ridiculous if he weren’t so malicious.

Which brings us back to my claim: the President has a penchant for putting Americans in danger through new and unusual methods. Americans have been endangered plenty of times before (ever heard of Vietnam?), but this guy is doing it in ways previously thought impossible!*

*Not that he’s particularly clever or smart. I’d hate to compliment that sad sack of hair plugs wrapped in a red tie. President Trump probably had these actions handed to him by one of the other sadists in his orbit, who took it from Project 2025, who took it from 101 Ways To Induce Human Suffering.

Let’s dive into the different ways Trump puts us in harm’s way, starting with the immediate threats.

1. Vaccines
   

   I joked about this above, but it’s truly a problem. The administration’s lax attitude on child vaccination is NOT GOOD. Measles is back! Measles! Even typing that word feels wrong. Too modern for what I basically thought was an extinct disease. Find me a typewriter or a BlackBerry or something. Measles was eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. That’s three years before I was born! I was under the impression this was a post-measles America, and I was wrong.

   Measles is somewhat deadly, with about three deaths per 1000 confirmed cases. But it spreads very fast, and at scale, those numbers are even more imposing. It’s already killing people, and it can absolutely get worse.

2. ICE
   

   Question: What happens when you send poorly trained, trigger-happy incels into cities and tell them they’re above the law?

   Answer: They shoot people who bother them. Alex Pretti and Renee Good were likely the first thoughts that crossed your mind when you read the title of this article. Their deaths were unnecessary, brutal, and celebrated by the President. And remember, those are just the ones we saw video of. ICE detention centers and facilities like “Alligator Alcatraz” (a dumb-ass name by the way) maintain poor conditions that impact the health and safety of all detainees.

   ICE is now deployed to airports as the partial government shutdown continues, and some suspect that once the shutdown ends, they won’t leave. Trump wants ICE near us, and with the agency’s track record of harm, you have to wonder why.

   That was a little heavy, sorry folks. Before we cover the slow-burning threats to the citizenry, here’s a palate cleanser:

What a dope. That groundhog doesn’t know anything about systemic dismantling of national institutions. He barely remembers his own shadow! We could only be so lucky.

Anyway, back to it.

The President and his administration are continually chipping away at the structures of our society that keep us safe and healthy. These actions don’t kill quickly, but their effects will be felt. You already knew this was coming. Let’s talk about climate change.

3. Repealing The Endangerment Finding
   

   Under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required to regulate pollutants once it is determined that they endanger our health and the environment. This means the EPA has to regulate, among other things, greenhouse gases. The Clean Air Act is a federal law passed by Congress, so Trump couldn’t just do away with it, but his friends in the fossil fuel industry sure would like it gone.

   So Trump’s EPA found a workaround: if greenhouse gases aren’t pollutants, then the EPA no longer has to regulate them under the law. And so they repealed the Endangerment Finding, a 2009 scientific decision that concluded the gases produced from the harvesting and burning of fossil fuels adversely affect human health and contribute to climate change.

   That’s right, they overturned a scientific fact! The Endangerment Finding came after years of inquiry by experts in and outside government, and all of a sudden, it isn’t considered true. That’s not how science operates! If we overturn gravity, I won’t start floating. It’s still real, regardless of whether we acknowledge it. Turning gravity on and off would be a ton of fun and make it a lot easier for me to dunk, but it’s just not the way anything works.

   The EPA cleared the way for more greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. This will hurt us all. As climate change intensifies, air quality decreases, temperatures rise, food production becomes harder, and your stubborn grandparents who refuse to leave Florida because of “a little wind and rain” are at risk of stronger and stronger hurricanes decimating their retirement property.

4. Reclassifying Professional Degrees
   

   This one is only a future threat at the moment, so I’ll end with it as a shred of hope.

   In 2025, the Department of Education, led by real-life Lady Macbeth Linda McMahon, proposed a rule that would reclassify some professional degrees as graduate degrees. These classifications are used at the federal level to determine borrowing caps for student loans. Those pursuing graduate degrees have lower borrowing limits, which can make it more challenging to cover rising tuition costs. That may be less of a concern for your cousin that wants to get his master’s in glass blowing (no shade to glass blowing!) but let’s see which degrees Linda thinks should lose this professional label:
   

   • Nursing (Master’s, Doctor of Nursing Practice)

   • Public Health

   • Occupational Therapy

   • Physical Therapy

   • Social Work

   • Counseling

   • AND MORE

   
   If getting a nursing degree becomes more expensive, people will stop getting those degrees, and as anyone who's watching The Pitt can tell you, nurses are the backbone of our medical system. Without them, more people will die!

   These proposed changes throw a wrench into the healthcare worker pipeline, which wasn’t exactly functioning at 100% before! They take effect on July 1st, and I know I said this would be the hopeful part of the list, but I’m looking at my notes again…

   Yup, sorry. No hope.

So why is the President doing this? Why does he want us to die? Truth be told, I’m not sure, and I have little interest in trying to determine why the guy does anything. I’d rather focus on stopping him, and that starts with local organizing. The federal government isn’t interested in your survival, but the people around you probably are. Vote small! Get involved! Volunteer your time to fill the gaps.

Maybe we can build something that takes care of each other better than the government ever pretended to do.