Letting People Die For Fun and Profit
By 
Yesterday’s death in the Trump Tower fire was the foreseeable consequences of Donald Trump’s actions and policy views:
On Saturday, a fire at Trump tower in New York City killed 67-year-old Todd Brassner, a resident of the building, and left six firefighters injured. The blaze, which broke out on the 50th floor and was kept contained to that area, marks the second fire at Trump’s Fifth Avenue building this year. The first broke out on January 8, injuring two civilians and a firefighter, reportedly due to an electrical issue. The cause of Saturday’s fire has not yet been confirmed.
But the president took to Twitter last night to discuss the fire, saying that it was well-contained, and that the building is “well built.”
He failed to mention, however, that the residential floors of the building—which also contains Trump’s home and the offices of the Trump Organization—lack sprinklers. That’s in part thanks to Trump himself, who in the late 1990s lobbied against legislation that would have required him to install sprinklers in Trump Tower.
Well, as Megan McArdle has observed, you can’t make an omelet without immolating a lot of people to death.