Thinking the Unthinkable: Do Republicans Want Some of Us to Die?

“Well, we all are going to die,” Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst responded to a constituent who said “people are going to die” because of the cruel provisions of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill.” Ernst is correct, we are all going to die, but what she and the Republican Party appear to want is for specific groups to die.

That’s a shocking statement, and a hard one for us to make. But before you dismiss it, look at the evidence that’s accumulated over the years.

Republicans’ lack of concern for the lives of others appeared during the pandemic in a push to reopen businesses before vaccines and drugs were available. This would greatly increase Covid-19 transmission. Republicans railed against and dismantled every public health mitigation strategy. They knew that the deadliest toll would be on the elderly, infirm, migrants and the poor—the most vulnerable and the least welcomed by Republicans. Texas Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick supported reopening, arguing that grandparents should willingly risk death by Covid-19 to save the country’s economy for their children and grandchildren. Arizona’s former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey also placed the economy before human lives, taking numerous steps to undermine public health strategies. In the end, the pandemic death rates were higher in Arizona than any other state.

The infamous “Big Beautiful Bill” allows Republicans to further undermine the health of those they disfavor, with its draconian funding cuts to safety-net programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The Republican plan, to let Covid-19 rip to save the economy, held an unspoken benefit for them; Covid-19 deaths would remove unwelcome people—overwhelmingly elderly, Black or brown, poor or living with disabilities—from the rolls of the social programs that Republicans dislike. A cold indifference for the lives of others was in play.

Concurrently, Republicans spread misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines and masking, with President Trump being the single largest driver of Covid-19 misinformation. This turbocharged the present-day anti-public health, anti-science, anti-vaccine sentiments that endanger the U.S., culminating in the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a nonscientist and anti-vaccine advocate, to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Kennedy and Trump have methodically weakened the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Kennedy systematically removed vaccine experts, replacing them with anti-vaccine cronies. His mounting campaign to cease vaccination will allow the return of serious and deadly diseases. Once again, this will have the greatest adverse effects on groups unwelcomed by Republicans. Kennedy and Republicans have also cut funding for HIV vaccine research and suicide hotlines for LGBTQ+ youths, and are doing all they can to ban gender-affirming care for young people. All of this endangers the lives of groups that Republicans scorn.

The infamous “Big Beautiful Bill” allows Republicans to further undermine the health of those they disfavor, with its draconian funding cuts to safety-net programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). These programs serve the most vulnerable U.S. residents—those with disabilities or who experience poverty and already struggle for adequate healthcare and nutrition. Ultimately, the bill would end access to healthcare and adequate nutrition for 14 million of the most vulnerable people in the U.S., intentionally endangering their lives.

And let’s not forget Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz, the Republicans’ detention center for migrants. The design and location of the center is not conducive to sustaining health or life. The cruelty of the place delights Republicans.

It doesn’t stop with the unwelcome in America. The Trump administration’s closing of USAID removed U.S. humanitarian and development assistance worldwide to people in the worst situations. USAID provided food, clean water, lifesaving medicines, and assistance for farmers; kept women and girls safe; and promoted peace. Due to Trump’s cruel closure of USAID, as many as 95 million people will be denied basic healthcare and nutrition, potentially leading to more than 3 million preventable deaths per year. The halting of funding for USAID, as well as the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), could cause an additional 4-11 million new HIV infections and up to 2.9 million HIV-related deaths between 2025 and 2030. Further, Kennedy has pulled out of the vaccine alliance Gavi, an organization that has paid for more than 1 billion children to be vaccinated worldwide.

These cruel decisions endanger the most vulnerable around the world. But Republicans will never care about these Black and brown people who come from “shithole” countries, according to Trump. In their eyes, they are among the unwanted.

Some may see the Republicans’ plans as 21st-century eugenics to improve the white race by diminishing everyone who is not white, straight, nondisabled, Republican, and Christian. Many are reluctant to talk about this because it seems so unthinkable, but we must reckon with the strong possibility that this administration actively wants some of us to go away. Look at what is happening, and remember that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.