Donald Trump got these people killed
Of all Donald Trump’s negative traits, his brazen cruelty is perhaps the most alarming. As Adam Serwer observed in his popular “The Cruelty Is the Point” piece for The Atlantic in October 2018, “The Trump era is such a whirlwind of cruelty that it can be hard to keep track.” Serwer further revealed the truly sick part, that Trump and his supporters bond by “rejoicing in the suffering of those they hate and fear.”
Unfortunately, when the Sadist-in-Chief left the White House, the cruelty he inflicted over four years did not suddenly stop. Although Trump was replaced by a leader who strives to promote dignity for all, embers of the cretin’s brutality stubbornly persist well over a year into Joe Biden’s presidency.
Trump wasted no time signing an executive order in January 2017 to extend the height from 6-17 feet to 30 feet for hundreds of miles of border wall. As I wrote last month, a new report showed that Trump’s design change in the San Diego area led to a stark increase in migrant deaths, trauma center admissions, and injury severity.
This week, new reporting from NBC News paints an even darker picture. Border Patrol and paramedics have responded to 229 deaths and injuries, including broken legs and brain and spinal injuries, of people who have attempted to cross the wall in the El Paso sector, which spans the entire Mexico-New Mexico border, since October 2021.
While riding with Border Patrol, NBC News reporters observed what happens all too often thanks to Trump’s design change: desperate migrants get exploited by smugglers, who send them up by ladder without caring how they get down on the other side. In one instance, a teenage girl fell from the top of the wall, lying in pain as she struggled to breathe before an ambulance arrived.
This ongoing nightmare is one example of how a President’s cruel nature not only brings harm to victims and shame to America while he is in office but often continues long after he’s gone. While Trump may not be personally on the ballot this November, craven members of the party that proudly enabled and cheered his cruelty are lusting for power and thirsty for votes. This is one of many urgent reasons why the Republican Party must not prevail this November.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month