The DOGE Deaths

We’re less than two months into Trump’s second term, and “worst president of the 21st century” is not longer a remotely open question:

The New York Times is the first to put out comprehensive estimates on the cost of a year without U.S.A.I.D. and they’re higher than I thought: – 1.65 million deaths from AIDS – 500,000 from lack of vaccines – 550,000 from lack of food aid – 290,000 from malaria – 310,000 from TB

[image or embed]— Bill McKay (@mckay4senate.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 9:42 AM

This isn’t being done with any larger purpose; it’s just pure cruelty with some genetic underpinnings. And as with the eleciton that brought us the Iraq War, 2024 was widely portrayed as a low-stakes election as it unfolded. And in terms of the capitulation of party elites, remember this from the passive-aggressive endorsement of Trump by the New York Times’s designated Reasonable Conservative:

Better mediocrity than Trump — except that in 2024, unlike 2016, the Republican ticket has the ballast of a running mate who is capable of going multiple rounds in any format (I may have a personal bias in JD Vance’s favor, but I think his performance in interviews and the V.P. debate has been extremely effective), and the fervent involvement of the man responsible for America’s most successful automotive start-up and rockets that are the wonder of the world.

Everything will be fine with Trump 2.0 because it will involve an inexperienced guy who spends a lot of time chatting with white nationalist teenagers but has mastered a forum that is completely irrelevant to governing but is amenable to glib, cynical sociopaths. And not only that but a white nationalist libertarian crackpot with no governmental experience who will be given broad, unchecked power. What could possibly go wrong?