Is Trump Trying to Kill Us All?

Donald Trump might feel that his best chance for reelection is if he kills us all.

It's not as far-fetched as you might think. He has already taken nine lethal shots at us, and the year is only half over.

Six months ago, our government had the opportunity to confront a budding pandemic. In the weeks that followed, the Trump administration dragged its feet, obfuscated, deflected, and wished away any bad news. Trump's behavior bordered on silly, but dangerously so -- such as not allowing a cruise ship to dock because it would inflate our numbers.

Instead of keeping the numbers down legitimately by adopting an aggressive stance against the virus, Trump let valuable time go by before the federal government temporarily stepped into action. We were warned at the beginning that if the government didn't move boldly, we would be in trouble. We were also told that if we didn't get it right the first time, and if we opened the economy too soon, we'd be forced to close up shop once again, because economies -- national and local -- can't function with an overwhelmed health system.

Trump's first infliction: ignoring the virus and then addressing it mildly, which took tens of thousands of lives.

Instead of seeing the battle through, Trump dropped out of the COVID-19 fight after he tried to get us all to swallow bleach or inject ourselves with disinfectant. His diagnosis, then his disappearance. After being so late to the game at the onset of the virus and telling us to basically kill ourselves, Trump evaporated and left us all to our own devices.

At this point, Trump had tried to kill us twice in the first four months of the year.

Now, welcome to the summer of 2020, when Trump's attempts to do us all harm have accelerated.

The George Floyd tragedy woke many white people up to the realization that Black lives do matter and prompted so many of us to march in protest. In the meantime, Trump ramped up his lethal blows. "When the looting starts the shooting starts" was a harbinger of his law and order stance, which was less about law and order and more about "dominating" and wiping away the protesters.

Say what you want, but he tried to kill peaceful protesters in front of the White House -- maybe it wasn't an overt attempt, but it was an effort to get rid of them with guns and gas bangs and rubber bullets and tear gas -- and that was a war on the people of the United States. Trump was proud of obliterating protesters and marveled that the National Guard could cut them like "knives through butter."

In the process, he has ramped up his racial rants, posting about "thugs," using children as racist propaganda, promoting his supporters yelling "white power," and highlighting and praising white people with rifles threatening Black protesters. This has led to a rise in hate crimes and an escalation of the tone against Black people, and given a voice to the cruelty and brutality of white nationalist groups across the United States.

Trump's mortal offensives against protesters and Black people were his third and fourth attempts at murder in 2020.

Small businesses and the economy and, by correlation, most of us, were the targets of his next attempt at wasting. By walking away from COVID, by ignoring his own task force, government and public-sector scientists, and economists, he allowed and encouraged his blindly loyal group of Republican governors to rush through all phases of reopening.

This, despite rising numbers of infected and sick, and notwithstanding virtual screams from all those with level heads that it was all "way too soon" and the virus would run rampant and force businesses to close back up again -- and this time, probably for good.

As a result, so many have begun -- and so many will begin -- the process of shutting down again. Within the last week, small-businesses owners, almost to a person, have said they cannot sustain themselves through a second shutdown. It's happening, and it's only going to get worse, since even Trump's feckless secretary of Health and Human Services warned that the window is closing for us to get control of the virus. We know that this administration is incapable of controlling it, so Alex Azar's comments were less of an alert and more of a certainty.

All this, while the number of infected skyrocket, and medical experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, warn that deaths will start to spike during the next two months. It's going to be brutal. And what becomes of a round 2 during the fall and winter?

Trump's fifth and sixth cruel stabs to our country ... and his massacre continues.

If all this wasn't ruinous enough, the inhumane Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to strike down the Affordable Care Act, which to millions who have been left unemployed through the COVID-19 nightmare has been a last resort -- and a relief.

Just as millions continue to be unemployed, including hard-hit minority and low-income communities, the ACA, with its accessibility, stipulations, and low cost, has never been more desperately needed. For many, ACA is their last and only hope for help with medical bills, and in some cases, it's saving lives by giving enrollees access to quality care. Without it, and without a replacement for ACA immediately available if it should be ruled unconstitutional, millions and millions will lose their health insurance and undeservedly suffer.

Trump's sickening seventh deadly bash to our country.

Doctors, journalists, infectious disease specialists -- everyone with a brain and with genuine concern for our lives has pleaded with Americans to wear masks as COVID-19 quickly hastens. If the 24-hour news cycle is redundant about masks multiple times during each of those 24 hours, it's for a reason. It's vitally important that we mask up -- or risk infecting others and inevitably lose control of the virus.

Donald Trump, with his belligerent bullshit of refusing to wear a mask, is plainly putting millions of lives at risk. He's got 80 million+ Twitter followers and millions of -- just going to say it -- ignorant supporters, who will do anything he tells them. Believe anything he says. Do anything he does. His refusal to wear a mask is not just putting his base at risk, it's putting all of us at risk.

Trump's mask refusal -- his eighth murderous action against our country.

And it continues. Late last week, The New York Times broke the almost unbelievable news that Russia was putting a bounty on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan by paying the Taliban to kill U.S. troops. The Washington Post reported that the bounties are "believed to have resulted in the deaths of several U.S. service members," a conclusion based on interviews with captured militants.

It was also reported that the intelligence community made the White House and Trump aware of this barbaric war crime in early 2019. And what did Trump do in response? Nothing. Let that sink in! He did nothing to protect our troops. He left them to die.

We aren't even in July, and Trump's annihilation of us continues with its ninth deadly blast.

How many more times will we be threatened before November? How much more will we suffer? How many more will die? And how will those deaths occur? COVID? Protesting? Economy? Racist rants? No health care? No mask? Militarily? Something else? What deviousness and destruction does Trump have left for us?

Is Trump out to kill us all?

John Casey is a PR professional and an adjunct professor at Wagner College in New York City, and a frequent columnist for The Advocate. Follow John on Twitter @johntcaseyjr.