Burke: Donald Trump — Evil, sick, stupid, old or just burned toast?

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, April 22, 2026

“Everything Trump Touches Dies” was the title of a 2018 book by well-known Republican strategist and Never Trumper, Rick Wilson.

But what started out as a political treatise discussing Trump’s destruction of the reputations, careers, and lives of those in his orbit; then turned into a satiric Trump meme; tragically morphed into a phrase not just about political death, but real death — Der Tod. La Muerte. La Mort. – caused by Trump.

Now Trump’s body count began in his first term with his total fail protecting the country from Covid.

According to the medical journal, The Lancet, forty percent of US COVID-19 deaths (180,000 souls) were avoidable if Trump had acted responsibly, plus “tens of thousands” additional deaths were due to Trump’s politicization of masks and rejection of science.

But 200,000 dead Americans was just Trump warming up.

Because the death toll, so far in 2026, from his elimination of Congressionally approved funding for US AID is, according to Boston University and Harvard researchers, 762,000 people (of which 500,000 are children) who died of malnutrition, HIV, malaria, polio, and lack of basic humanitarian aid.

And that is 100% on Trump’s head (with help from Elon Musk and DOGE).

But wait! there’s more — because, again referring to The Lancet, — by 2030 14 to 19 million mothers, fathers, children, aunties, uncles, friends, neighbors, and grandparents will be in the ground as a result of Trump’s cuts.

Ponder that for a moment.

Ponder Trump’s responsibility for 14 to 19 million deaths — whose US equivalent is the total population of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, with some change left over — that he’s doing in your name.

Fortunately the body count so far from his “war” in Iran is less substantial: only 13 dead American soldiers; 165 little girls from a mistargeted missile; and untold thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers from the bombs he dropped.

But rest assured, he has more disgusting plans for Iran as he posted April 7th on “Truth Social” threatening, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” Followed by, “I was willing to do it.” (Which, gentle reader, is unabashed genocide and a war crime of the rankest sort.)

Recently there’s been musing about what’s wrong with Donald Trump.

Some are convinced he has totally lost his mind and is insane, and they refer back to his compulsive, late-night Truth Social postings, sleeping through Cabinet meetings, inability to complete a coherent thought, and bizarre antics over the past 14 months.

Another theory: he has aged well beyond his 80 years and is firmly in the grip of Alzheimer’s.

But there are also whispers among Christian fundamentalists that his actions and rhetoric are Satan’s work aligning with the biblical, prophetic, and metaphorical definition of the Antichrist, especially after his attack on Pope Leo and his posting of himself as Jesus Christ, healing the sick.

I’d like to offer two thoughts:

First, no matter the cause, he is a total failure as President. Consider his tariff disaster; rising inflation; spiking gas, oil, and food prices; his immigration attacks; his “edifice” complex with ballrooms and arches; his destruction of the federal bureaucracy, abrogation of the Constitution; and his illegal use of the military as he bypasses Congress on any and all issues of national importance.

Secondly, as I heard someone on the radio opine, “A diminished Donald Trump is a dangerous Donald Trump.”

Whether it’s his failure in the Iran war; his invasion of Venezuela, his threat to capture Cuba; his campaign to take over Greenland; his push to quit NATO; more tariffs Americans pay; or his obsession to make Canada the fifty-first state there’s no telling what he’ll do internationally.

While domestically his campaign to take over US elections looms as November approaches.

Banning vote-by-mail, crowning the US Post Office and Dept. of Homeland Security arbiters of who votes and who doesn’t; and threats to declare a bogus “state of emergency” so he can mobilize his private ICE army at polling places are all actions Trump has floated.

My three biggest fears: 1) He might actually try all this; 2)people will resist and not just march and chant but take direct (violent?) action (which Trump fervently hopes they will do); and 3) Trump will respond to any protest with the Army, not just ICE, fighting American citizens and cancelling the 2028 presidential election.

Donald Trump is evil. He may not be the antichrist, but his lying, grifting, and assaults on women define his character.

Donald Trump is sick and not physically capable of leading 330 million people, the world’s strongest military, and the globe’s biggest economy.

Donald Trump is stupid, just listen to him speak and his ignorance is as transparent as the lies he tells.

Donald Trump is old and his erratic behavior, dementia, and cognitive decline has led former aides, such as Ty Cobb who served as his White House lawyer, to declare Trump is, “a man who is clearly insane.”

To conclude: Donald Trump is toast. Supporters are leaving the MAGA movement like rats slinking off a sinking ship; foreign leaders have figured out how to ignore his bleatings; and America’s “independent” voters have finally seen through his lies and are finished with him.

Trump is still powerful and cunning and amoral and can still do great damage.

And we still have to confront him at every turn and vote to flip Congress in November.

So continue the fight; contribute to worthy candidates; and Vote in November.

Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.