TRUMP’S TICKET TO JUDECCA

Abstract: This essay argues that Donald Trump represents a dictatorial threat comparable to Adolf Hitler, citing projected deaths from cuts to international aid programs and domestic healthcare that could total millions of people by 2030. The author contends that Trump's policies, including the elimination of USAID funding and cuts to Medicaid and social safety net programs, will disproportionately harm vulnerable populations globally and domestically. The piece warns of Trump's alleged authoritarian tendencies, including threats to prosecute political opponents like Zohran Mamdani, potential interference with democratic elections, and the suspension of constitutional processes. The essay concludes by calling for organized resistance through new progressive leadership and Democratic Socialist policies to counter what it characterizes as an existential threat to American democracy and global humanitarian efforts.

With all due respect for my cultural brothers, I think it is time to stop criticizing commentators who argue that Donald Trump is an evil dictator on a par with Adolph Hitler. It is not disrespectful of the six million Jews -- SIX MILLION -- slaughtered by Hitler if it is not a baseless exaggeration but a statement of truth. Also bear in mind that the vast majority of Hitler’s exterminations occurred after the U.S. had already declared war and entered World War II, and Trump has just begun.

It is of course difficult to count the actual number who will die at the hands of Donald Trump, particularly now that he’s gotten his Big Bill further demolishing essential survival services for Americans. For now, it seems the worst immediate impact will be the devastation caused by the evisceration of the U.S. Agency for International Development. (Disclosure: I have a daughter who until this year’s agency axe murders was a contract employee of USAID.) One study estimates that somewhere between eight and nineteen million people could die by 2030 because of Donald Trump if USAID cuts become permanent, including 4.5 million children; researchers project 1.8 million excess deaths in 2025 alone, with a total of 14 million by 2030. Trump’s own government’s internal memos reportedly estimated that one million children will go untreated for severe malnutrition, up to 166,000 people will die from malaria and 200,000 more children will be paralyzed by polio over the next decade. We are talking about millions of senseless deaths. But of course those are mainly black and brown humans dying, and we pretty well can discern how Donald feels about that.

For domestic impacts, the estimates are more limited but still significant: a study predicts Trump's Medicaid cuts may lead to over 16,500 American deaths primarily tied to insurance coverage losses. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 11.8 million people will lose health coverage (eleven MILLION people) over the next decade, with nearly 12 million more people being without insurance by 2034 due to cuts to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act programs. As if killing millions isn’t enough, Trump has slashed other social safety net programs domestically, including SNAP (food stamps), so extreme hunger and malnutrition are almost inevitable if Trump is permitted to continue the carnage. We haven’t even tried to measure the impact of cuts to education, to essential transportation, to local and regional hospitals and other state-paid services which are inevitable because of the arrogant and senseless slash of vital federal support.

So I ask most sincerely, isn’t it time to equate the bigoted, corrupt, bloviating, evil murderer presently occupying the White House as belonging on the same level of hell as a contemporary Hitler. This is no joke: literally millions are dying and will die as a direct consequence of his viciousness. Millions more will suffer needlessly. All the while as he goes off to his money-losing golf resorts for relaxing days on the greens with his billionaire buddies.

Awake people. This is not some dystopian future doom-saying. It is upon us right now. He has already insulted and threatened to prosecute and deport Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani, born in Uganda to East Indian parents and brought to the U.S. at age 7, is a naturalized citizen who has devoted his working life to public service -- in stark contrast to Donald Trump. Mamdani strongly supports the liberal agenda: affordable housing, free public transportation, raising taxes on large corporations and the wealthiest 1% of individuals, and free public health care -- also in stark contrast to Donald Trump.

“As President of the United States, I’m not going to let this Communist Lunatic destroy New York. Rest assured, I hold all the levers, and have all the cards,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site. “I’ll save New York City, and make it ′Hot′ and ′Great′ again, just like I did with the Good Ol’ USA!”

Donald Trump is going to use the law enforcement authorities of the U.S. government illegally to restrain a U.S. citizen and presumably the U.S. military to seize control of a major U.S. city if as expected it elects Mamdami by an overwhelming majority of votes in the November 4^th general election. (Dare I predict that Trump’s blustering rants are likely to increase that majority, knowing how New York City voters react to outside assaults.) Of course there’s not a shred of legal authority for such threats, but that hasn’t ever slowed down our self-appointed American fuhrer. Additionally 18 U.S. Code § 1201 specifically makes it a crime to kidnap a public official, and 18 U.S. Code § 875 criminalizes interstate threats to kidnap an official even if the kidnapping never occurs; Trump arguably has added yet another felony to his collection. Never, NEVER, in the history of the United States has a president been so in need of immediate impeachment as he.

Just as bad as his blatant Islamophobia, swagger, smirking and lying is his openly stated intention to interfere with the democratic election process. What, I ask, will prevent him from declaring that the Republicans remain in control of Congress next year; remember it is Trump’s slavish Republican Congress under Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution that “shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members . . .”. This means each chamber (the House and the Senate) has the power to decide who is properly elected and meets the requirements to serve. Do you see another Big Beautiful Bill on the horizon?

Then who will block Trump from absolutely suspending the presidential election in 2028 to remain in power? Congress? Don’t make me laugh -- it hurts too much. His slavish Supreme Court? Don’t count on those three true believers in the cult (Gorsuch, Alito, Thomas) and three other compliant wee mice (Kavanaugh, Coney Barrett and the greatest disappointment, Roberts).

Trump has already declared he intends to conduct criminal investigations of state elections officials. One wonders if he’s thinking of perhaps shipping some off to prison in South Sedan as the Supreme Court has allowed him to do with deportees; there is little doubt he will limit his focus to blue states. We also assume someone will read to him the handwriting on the wall (since we know he’s not much of a reader himself) and can see his numbers are increasingly underwater, and his cronies in Congress are potentially in deep danger in next year’s scheduled midterms, thus a powerful motivation to seize control over what he has also declared will be the rigged elections in Democratic states.

Make no mistake: we are witnessing the beginning of the end of free elections in the Republic right before our very eyes and with virtually no organized resistance. Putting his fat thumb on the electoral scales with all his might is a unique abuse of power -- what could be a higher Crime or Misdemeanor under Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution. In the meantime, Chuck Schumer & Co in the disordered Democratic Party management declare “tut tut.”

It is past time to call another Hitler a Hitler. If the capacity to inflict death and destruction is the measure, surely Trump is now in the league. If the capacity for evil is the test, Trump is definitely on a par. If a smirking golfing sociopathic incapacity for feeling or respect for another human being is the test, Trump is a poster boy. So criticize me as a lapsed Jew if you will, but I’m sticking by my guns: Hitler and Trump will occupy successive pages in the history books, along with Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Genghis Khan for their subhuman capacity for inflicting death and destruction. Judecca, referenced in the title of this essay, is the region of Dante’s Ninth Circle reserved for the worst who were guilty of treachery against benefactors or humanity or divinely ordained authority.

Up to this point I know I don’t sound like the eternal optimist I like to be, but I assure you I do have to believe some of this devastation can, at least in part, be averted. However, it will take a huge upswell in written and vocal opposition. We cannot rely upon the moribund Democratic Party leadership to lead this charge. We have to fall in with new leadership -- people like old Bernie Sanders and young Zohran Mamdani. I too at first thought Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez too strident, but I now welcome and support her voice. I favor shaking things up, removing left-over Clinton-centrist representatives, replacing them with those who will pursue the liberal agenda. Come on people, demand a move to the left; condemn the murderous cabal in D.C.; consider organizing a small liberal meet-up in your community; try to save democracy. Call me a new Democratic Socialist or, as the Donald would have it, another Crazy Radical Lunatic Communist, a sobriquet I’ll wear proudly until he and his ilk have been ousted from the political scene.

Arne Werchick, after fifty years as a California litigation attorney, pro tem judge, law lecturer, former Presiding Arbitrator of the State Bar of California, and past president of the California Trial Lawyers Association, moved to Hawaii and lives with his wife Ruth and their rescue dog Topaz. His prior community service included two years as Special Counsel to California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR), Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law at Hastings College of the Law, Administrative Law Judge pro tem, Chair of the Palm Desert Rent Review Commission, and numerous professional and civic organizations, and he was frequently an invited lecturer at continuing education programs. He now writes and publishes OUT OF MY LIBERAL MIND to provide a progressive perspective on current politics and provide a forum for liberal conversation, WIDGETS by WERCHICK, an occasional comment on techie gadgets which might prove useful for seniors, and NJABCTCC -- Phileas Fogg Reports, the voice of the Not-Just-Another-Book-Club Travel Conversation Circle which Arne and Ruth created and moderated. Contact Arne at liberalmind@werchick.com or njabctcc@werchick.com