For enquiring minds: Killers with the highest body count

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.

Playing the blame game in the MAGA era

An inconvenient truth for MAGA

Scientific expertise will remain central for good democratic governance. Science has become too important, too powerful a force in society, and too many crucial public issues hang on the technical details of scientific assessment. --  Heather Douglas, The Routledge Handbook of Political Epistemology, Michael Hannon, Jeroen de Ridder, eds., 2021

Now that MAGA authoritarian poison is in full control of the federal government and political opposition has collapsed, what has happened due to MAGA since Jan. 2025 can reasonably be assigned to MAGA people, especially Trump and MAGA elites. 

At least one source reports that in response to criticisms of himself and his policies, HHS secretary & elite MAGA crackpot RFK Jr. struck back at critics by telling the American people, We need to stop trusting the experts. Trusting the experts is not a feature of either a science or democracy. 

Criticism by actual public health experts claiming that Kennedy's actions "are endangering the health of the nation" prompted Kennedy's obviously toxic advice and his lie about democracy. Contrary to what the malicious crackpot says, trusting experts definitely is a feature of both science and democracy. Ignoring experts when they carry inconvenient messages is a feature of dictatorship, and authoritarianism generally.

Kennedy is a lawyer and crackpot conspiracy theory believer. He is not a public health expert, he has no professional public health expertise or experience, he has no peer-reviewed papers in any academic discipline. And he is an authoritarian and a liar, not a democrat and honest but lost soul.

Since Trump and MAGA elites put Kennedy in power, it is rational, fair and balanced to (i) acknowledge who and what is responsible for Kennedy's MAGA policies, and (ii) assign blame for bad, and credit for good. 

Long analysis made short: Conservative estimates of Kennedy-linked deaths are (1) three confirmed measles deaths in unvaccinated people (context), (2) two Whooping Cough deaths (context), (3) 252 pediatric influenza deaths in unvaccinated children (context), (4) many COVID deaths among the unvaccinated, and (5) minimum confirmed total: ~11,500+ deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases during Kennedy's tenure (context, context). 

Under the circumstances, MAGA elites and MAGA policy are ~100% to blame for those deaths. That makes Kennedy, Trump and MAGA elites, including the MAGA authors of Project 2025, mass killers. If there is are reasons to think that MAGA elites are not mass killers, what are the reasons and what is the evidence? 

 

Q: Are Kennedy, Trump and MAGA elites mass killers, or is it unfair or irrational to even imply that? 

More inconvenient truth for MAGA

Protecting science from politicization is an ongoing concern in contemporary society. .... scientific inquiry is distinctive from democratic politics [and that] can be the basis for defining politicization. .... Although there are parallels between democratic political norms and norms for scientific inquiry, there are crucial differences as well. Eliding these differences creates politicization of inquiry. --- Heather Douglas, Differentiating Scientific Inquiry and Politics, 2023

What to do in the face of futility? Nothing?

Germaine's battle insignia

We only have one life. Our time is short and precious, at least in my opinion. Some of us do things that seem to be futile, arguably wasting time. Why engage in futility, if time is short and precious? Does engaging with futile causes make any sense? That might depend on how one defines the futility concept.

Writing an opinion for the NYT (not paywalled) exiled Russian reporter Masha Gessen wrote this about her futile dream, justice for the murdering monster Vladimir Putin:

And just like that, the Western powers, which had never fully embraced this invention of theirs, became willing to leave international justice for dead.

This is the first in a series of columns on new and emerging attempts to deliver on the promise of international justice. For me, this promise is not abstract. It’s personal — as, I suspect, it has been for dissidents all over the world. As an opposition journalist in Russia, and later, living in forced exile, I have cherished the thought that Putin might one day be tried for his crimes. I have said to myself that I will keep working long enough to be able to report from his trial. International justice is a civil religion for our time: Those of us who do not believe in God may still have believed in the higher judgment delivered in The Hague.

Skander Khilf -- MAGA hates her guts

because she advocates for international justice[1]

What is the likelihood that Putin will ever be tried for his crimes? Given the state of the human species on planet Earth on Oct. 17, 2025, close to zero. 

So why would Gessen keep fighting to get justice for Putin if the exercise is futile? Because maybe it isn't 100% futile. She is virtue signaling about the ideal of justice. She is trying to keep the idea alive, even if the reality is out of reach. In Gessen's short lifetime and in Putin's far too long lifetime, one can confidently say that Putin will not face justice for his crimes. Odds of that statement being wrong appear to be almost nil. But maybe in the long run, post-Putin history will show that it was a grave mistake to not hold the monster accountable.

Why does Germaine keep virtue signaling about the core moral values of democracy, rule of law, civil liberties and respect for truth? For the same reason that Gessen keeps up her virtue signaling. Maybe her pleas for justice, along with those of other like-minded pro-justice people, will resonate with people who can do actually something good about it in the future. Maybe arguments for democracy, rule of law, civil liberties and respect for truth will resonate some day. Without those arguments, the chances of those moral values ever amounting to anything significant are much lower.

Virtue signaling about social ills, such as cruelty or kleptocracy through blogs or newspaper opinions mostly stems from moral conviction. Despite minimal or no discernable immediate impact, these acts foster and reinforce unity among like-minded people. Such signaling sets a record of dissent that may detectably influence future thought, policy, or social norms. Historically, some once-ignored arguments, e.g., abolition, civil rights, gained traction and shaped policy. Dissents in USSC decisions don't affect cases immediately but sometimes become the foundation for later important majority opinions. In short, seemingly futile advocacy for democracy, justice, etc., helps foster mindsets needed for future reform. 

Footnote:

1. Last July, MAGA Secretary of State Marco Rubio imposed sanctions on Khilf. He designated her to be a "specially designated national". That status is normally slapped on arms and drug smugglers, terrorists, and their oligarch funders. But these are not normal times. Those people can't travel to the US. They lose access to their assets in the US. They cannot engage in most international financial transactions because they are barred from using US currency. That is how MAGA treats people seeking justice for Trump's good friend and mentor, Putin.

What Young Republicans really think

Politico obtained messages between leaders of Young Republicans groups across the country. If their true feelings are representative of the group as a whole, many or most of these Republicans are bigots, racists, admirers of Hitler, anti-Semites, and/or arrogant, insulting thugs. 

These fine young adults called black people monkeys and “the watermelon people”. They mused about putting political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping enemies and driving them to suicide. They lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery. William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans’ vice chair, used the words “n--ga” and “n--guh” many times in his chat comments. Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans, called rape “epic”. Peter Giunta, chair of the New York State Young Republicans at the time, wrote that everyone that votes no about whether he should become chair of the Young Republican National Federation “is going to the gas chamber”.

Those sentiments come from future GOP leaders and activists. That says everything a person needs to know about the mindsets of MAGA insiders. These people are not normal. They are not democrats. They are cynical, cruel authoritarians. They think killing, raping and psychologically torturing people is funny.

Expressions of his kind of moral rot presumably go in in secret all the time among many or most MAGA elites. Their actions are in accord with this filth. However, they are smart enough to not get caught revealing what they really think.

Yes, most of the MAGA rank and file Trump voters will vehemently distance themselves from those sentiments. But those are the people who created this with their votes. They asked for Trump and this is just one little part of the sleaze, corruption and moral rot that he is forcing on us. 

Given MAGA's track record of moral rot, mendacity, corruption, cruelty, etc., it is reasonable, fair and balanced to think that all MAGA elites feel more or less about the same as what most of those Young Republicans expressed in secret. 

Of course, that assessment could be wrong. Maybe most MAGA elites really do not share those Young Republican beliefs and sentiments. In that case, the burden of proof is on them to prove it.  The burden sure as hell is not on any of us in the opposition to prove their good intentions and good will. Their words and actions clearly express bad intentions and ill-will. 

Q: Is tarring MAGA elites with those viciously cruel Young Republican sentiments reasonable, fair and balanced or not? Who has the burden of proof one way or the other, us or them?