The DP post, Playing the blame game in the MAGA era, was about RFK Jr telling us to ignore public health experts, presumably because they are experts and all experts are liars or bad people. Actual public health experts warned us that his stupid, bad public health policies would get people killed.
That prompted wondering about how many deaths are on Trump's hands since COVID came on the scene in 2020. About that time he started his anti-vax and anti science crackpottery. He hasn't stopped his since. How many people who followed Trump's science advice starting in 2020 are dead because they listened to him? According to the evidence, a heck of a lot.
According to one analysis, about 68,000 to 183,000 deaths are attributable to Trump's COVID-19 lies, anti-science rhetoric, etc., since 2020. He ranks in the top 100 killers in recorded history. Maybe in the top 30, depending on how one defines "killers." He ranks about 13th-15th among the most modern death-causing figures. Excluding mostly war-related killers, he ranks about 9th-10th, ahead of serial killers and terrorist leaders, but behind the big genocidal dictators and colonial exploiters.
Since the late 1800s, Mao (China, 1946-1976) caused 40-80 million deaths from stupid policies, forced famine, and purges, Stalin (Soviet Union, 1924-1953) caused 20-60 million deaths from purges, forced collectivization, and his own famines, Hitler (Nazi Germany, 1933-1945) caused 15-35 million deaths from the Holocaust and WWII, Leopold II (Congo Free State, 1885-1908) caused 8-11 million deaths from colonial exploitation, Kim Il-sung (North Korea, 1948-1994) caused ~1.6 million deaths from oppression and famine, Ismail Enver Pasha (Ottoman Empire, 1913-1922) killed 2-2.9 million via Armenian and other genocides, Xi (China) killed about 1.6 million in the Uyghur genocide, Pol Pot (Cambodia, 1975-1979) killed 1.5-2 million in the Cambodian genocide, Putin (1999-2025) killed about 500,000 to 955,000 by Ukraine war and oppression in Russia, and Kim Jong Un (North Korea, 2011-2025) caused about 111,000 to 777,000 deaths. There are a few other modern top tier killers like Syria's Assad (~500,000 deaths), and Netanyahu (~67,000-151,000 deaths, with the most child deaths, ~20,000+ children in 2 years).
In death intensity terms, Trump caused ~25,000 deaths/year over 5 years, Putin caused ~28,000 deaths/year over 26 years, Xi caused ~127,000 deaths/year over 13 years, and Kim: ~31,000 deaths/year. Trump's death intensity during 2020-2025 was roughly equivalent to Putin and Kim, but over a shorter time.
Trump is not in the top tier body count. But he is a 2nd tier killer. He killed by mostly by bad policy and demagoguery, not bullets, bombs, lethal oppression, lethal purges, genocide, starving people to death, etc.
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