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From Texas to Covid, Trump Washes His Hands of Deaths on His Watch
The president has a long history of refusing to take responsibility and shifting blame on to political rivals.
Jul 10, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump may not be very good at running things, but when it comes to shifting blame, he is truly world class. As the magnitude of the disaster in Texas becomes clearer, the one thing we can be certain of is that Trump will accept none of the responsibility.
He will insist that his decision to have mass layoffs at the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) and National Weather Service (NWS) had nothing to do with the state’s lack of preparedness for the storm and the inadequate response. At this point it is not clear whether the layoffs at the agencies played a role in the warnings given or the speed of the response to the floods.
The Texas offices were clearly understaffed. However, we don’t know whether that impeded their operations in important ways.
He routinely makes absurd and ridiculous statements which would be treated as a major scandal if they came from the mouth of any other politician, but instead are dismissed with an “Oh, that’s Trump” from the media.
We do know that global warming makes events like the Texas floods both more common and more extreme. For that reason, we certainly can blame Trump’s efforts to promote global warming with increased subsidies for fossil fuels and ending support for electric vehicles and clean energy. We can anticipate many more weather disasters in the years head thanks to Trump’s policies.
Weather and natural disasters are far from the only area where Trump refuses to take responsibility for his actions. The economy shrank at a 0.5% annual rate in the first quarter. This was after it grew 2.4% in the fourth quarter of 2024 and 2.8% for the full year.
Nearly every forecaster expected the economy to keep growing at a healthy pace through 2025. However, Trump’s tariff threats, budget cuts, and layoffs at the federal level managed to quickly end the economy’s growth streak and push it into negative territory in the first quarter he was in office.
Naturally Trump responded to the bad news on growth by blaming former President Joe Biden for giving him an “economic disaster.” In reality land, Trump was handed the best economy of any president in more than half a century, with low unemployment falling inflation, rising real wages, and a unprecedented boom in factory construction.
Probably the all time classic for Trump denying responsibility was his response to the pandemic. He made it clear that he wasn’t especially concerned about how many people got sick or died from Covid-19, he was only concerned that he not be given the blame.
At the start of the pandemic, there was an outbreak on a cruise ship. Trump said that he wanted the passengers to be kept on the ship so that the number of infections reported in the United States would not increase. In a campaign speech that summer, Trump said he ordered his staff to slow down the testing for Covid so that there would not be so many cases reported.
But Trump’s best moment was when he complained “the cupboard was bare,” and blamed former President Barack Obama for a lack of equipment and protective medical gear needed to deal with a pandemic. In fact, Obama had left considerable stockpiles to deal with a pandemic, but the more important point is that Trump had been president for more than three full years at that point.
If there were inadequate stockpiles, that was 100% on Trump. If he is to be taken at his word, Trump never even bothered to check on pandemic preparedness the whole time he had been in office. That was an astounding level of ineptitude.
Trump’s complaint says everything about the way he thinks. Rather than owning up to the reality of the situation, Trump absurdly sought to blame Obama for what was obviously his own failing.
The reporting on Trump’s complaint also says a huge amount about how the media adjusts its reporting to Trumpian standards. Rather than ridiculing Trump for what was obviously his own failing, it tried to evaluate the accuracy of his complaint about the stockpile Obama had left more than three years earlier.
Unfortunately, this sort of affirmative action for the son of a billionaire has been a regular feature of reporting on Trump. He routinely makes absurd and ridiculous statements which would be treated as a major scandal if they came from the mouth of any other politician, but instead are dismissed with an “Oh, that’s Trump” from the media. The idea that Trump is an adult who should be held responsible for his actions seems too difficult for many reporters to grasp.
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Don’t Believe Trump’s Disinfo Campaign About His Budget Bill and Social Security
Instead of eliminating taxes on Social Security, the One Big Beautiful Bill weakens Social Security’s ability to pay full benefits for current and future beneficiaries.
Jul 09, 2025
Over the summer, GOP members of Congress and the Trump administration—particularly President Donald Trump—will try to sell the American people on his “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB). One of the claims that will be made is that the legislation ends taxes on Social Security. Ending taxation of Social Security benefits was one of the major campaign promises made by Trump when he was campaigning for reelection.
Contrary to claims made by the White House, the president himself, and GOP members of Congress, the OBBB does not end taxation of Social Security. As MSNBC reporting points out, it is procedurally impossible to enact changes in Social Security through the process of reconciliation:
First and foremost, the idea that the megabill (OBBB) eliminates federal taxes on Social Security—a claim Trump has made repeatedly of late—is plainly false. In fact, congressional Republicans relied on the budget reconciliation process to advance the package, and it’s procedurally impossible to change Social Security through this complex process.
Take a moment to let this fact register with you. It is impossible to enact the kind of Social Security changes that the President Trump and his supporters claim.
So, how did misinformation about the impact of the OBBB on Social Security get started? Well, not surprisingly it starts with the White House. A White House press release on July 1 boldly proclaims that “No Tax on Social Security is a Reality in the One Big Beautiful Bill.” The White House disinformation campaign on Social Security went to an unprecedented level when the Social Security Administration (SSA) sent out misinformation on the elimination of taxes on Social Security in the OBBB. As The Washington Post points out:
The Social Security Administration sent an email to millions of Americans soon after the passage of OBBB saying that the landmark legislation “delivers long-awaited tax relief to millions of older Americans” and includes “a provision that eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries, providing relief to individuals and couples.”
So, how does the OBBB impact Social Security? Tara Siegel Bernard, of The New York Times, points out what the OBB does is to establish an enhanced tax deduction that will help reduce a household’s annual income, including Social Security. Furthermore, as Bernard points out, “Nor will the extra deduction benefit all Social Security recipients. Retirees who are 62 through 64 are ineligible.”
While Bernard and MSNBC’s coverage of this issue have been outstanding, much of the rest of the mainstream media has been disappointing on a couple of levels. First, the mainstream media has not condemned in clear terms the Trump administration’s politicalization of SSA’s communications with Social Security beneficiaries. Can you imagine the uproar you would hear had President Barack Obama done something similar?
The mainstream media is either too afraid to criticize the Trump administration or too lazy to try and understand the impact of the OBBB on Social Security, which amounts to millions of dollars of Americans’ earned benefits.
Another thing that almost all of the mainstream media is missing is that the OBBB weakens Social Security’s finances and makes the program’s fiscal challenges even more severe. The logic here is easy enough to follow: If you cut the money going into the Social Security trust funds, you weaken the program and push up the date of insolvency for the trust funds.
So, not only is the Trump administration misrepresenting what the OBBB does on the taxation of Social Security benefits, they are not telling you and me that they are weakening Social Security’s ability to pay out full benefits in the near term.
We are not powerless here. Each of us has the ability raise this issue with our members of Congress and with the media. Our answer to Trump’s false claim that the OBBB eliminates taxes is to simply tell the truth—instead of eliminating taxes on Social Security, the OBBB weakens Social Security’s ability to pay full benefits for current and future beneficiaries. Remember, as George Orwell pointed out: “In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
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Why Is the Media Normalizing Nuclear War and Its Effects on US Populations?
The meme-contour of recent articles seems to invite a casual shoulder shrug with respect to the dark road that we’re now heading down and to minimize the powder keg of conflict looming in the Middle East.
Jul 08, 2025
As a political journalist, I typically monitor about six or seven print publications and a somewhat absurd number of online ones. But I recently noticed a disturbing trend—a slew of articles with titles like “Apocalyptic map shows worst U.S. states to live in during nuclear war” or “Nuclear Fallout: Is Your State Safe?” Then there’s my personal favorite “10 U.S. States with the Best Odds of Surviving Nuclear Fallout and the Science Behind Their Safety.”
The second article informs us in a blithe and matter-of-fact tone that “recent geopolitical tensions have reignited concerns over nuclear safety across the United States. According to a detailed risk assessment featured on MSN, states along the West Coast (California, Oregon, Washington) and East Coast (Florida, Maine, Tennessee, Alabama, Ohio) have lower immediate fallout risks compared to central states.” And then, in a tone that could well be used to describe the best air conditioners to buy this summer, we’re cautioned that: “Even states considered safer are not guaranteed refuge from longer-term global impacts such as nuclear winter and widespread humanitarian crises.” Well good to know. Now we can all plan our summer travel accordingly. (As a brief aside, it should be noted that the MSN risk assessment article referred to is no longer available and has been yanked from the website. Curious.)
Articles such as these nudge us toward the psychologically unhealthy space of accepting a situation that should never be accepted.
My first reaction upon seeing these articles was a kind of visceral astonishment. The tone was jarring and, frankly, appalling. Were these perhaps AI-generated pieces coming from a digital source that has no real idea of the emotional resonance required to discuss nuclear war? Quite possibly. Does this point to a design flaw in AI that will never really be eradicated? Also, quite possible. My second more measured reaction was that such articles might inadvertently expose flaws in the veneer of the rational calculus that underlies the basis for what we sometimes generously called modern “civilization.”
So, what’s behind this disturbing attempt on the part of various media outlets to normalize the prospect of nuclear war? For starters, articles like these speak to a deep cognitive dissonance around this topic that’s been evident in sociopolitical environment ever since the horror of Hiroshima. The meme-contour of these articles seems to invite a casual shoulder shrug with respect to the dark road that we’re now heading down and to minimize the powder keg of conflict looming in the Middle East. The matter-of-fact tonality about the possibility of nuclear Armageddon is deeply troubling. Articles such as these nudge us toward the psychologically unhealthy space of accepting a situation that should never be accepted.
Unpacking the Psychological Roots of Militarism
The Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing described our socially conditioned and sometimes blithe acceptance of war and militarism as a form of mass psychosis, noting that “insanity is a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.” In a brilliant essay on this topic, clinical psychologist Frank MacHovec noted that “Wartime behavior deviates markedly from cross-cultural social norms and values. The irrationality and emotionality of war is a radical departure from accepted normal behavior... Wartime behavior of and by itself meets current diagnostic criteria for a severe mental disorder.”
MacHovec goes on to discuss war as a function of Freudian death instinct:
We award medals to and hail as heroes or martyrs those who kill more of the enemy. One nation’s freedom fighter is another’s terrorist, even though it may be the same behavior… Victims are dehumanized into objects, and robot-like violence depersonalizes the aggressor in the process… Defense mechanisms of denial, externalization, projection, rationalization, and splitting block reality testing have the effect of reducing anxiety and protecting against stress. Violence then becomes part of the array of defense mechanisms. Emotion overrides reason and logic in public education and controlled news media that reinforce aggression.
Do Governments Persuade Us to Accept War as “Normal”?
As if our own unruly and erratic human impulses weren’t enough cause for concern, when it comes to the application of violence-as-solution, Western and other governments (often in a position of power as the result of war settlements and therefore having “something to defend”) spend a considerable amount of time and effort normalizing war in both popular culture and the political sphere. Here in the U.S., the CIA funds ceremonies and rituals in venues such as NFL games designed to promote acceptance of the so-called glories of war. Hollywood does its part with movies like Top Gun that position the violent extermination of enemies as noble or brave. In fairness to a broader perspective, we can and should posit that, as individuals, those who fight in wars are often in fact noble or brave in specific situations. Certainly, they have been persuaded to and are willing to risk their lives for a cause and this takes both courage and selflessness.
That said, these qualities of selflessness are often exploited to persuade us that that war itself is somehow an acceptable solution to periodic disagreements that arise between the governments of nations. Adding nuclear acceptance to the mix is when the notion of more severe psychological aberration comes in. Far from being “diplomacy by other means,” our best historians have shown us that wars often benefit economic elites in power. Even worse, modern warfare has shown a disturbing tendency to focus on harming civilian populations. History reveals that, here in the U.S., elites have at times funded both sides of a conflict or stood to gain from both supplying armaments and rebuilding in the aftermath. We see this in extremis in President Donald Trump’s bizarre plans to turn Gaza into a resort area.
Clearly, the corporate profit-driven machinery of the political establishment and military-industrial-complex can now steamroller over public opinion with cavalier impunity, aided and abetted by both political parties.
The cold hard fact is that many wars are fought for all the wrong reasons: territorial domination of economically important resources (such as oil in the case of Iran and Iraq); economic benefits associated with supply chains; or the mere continuation of empire. But when the possibility of nuclear war becomes either conveniently ignored, gamed, or normalized by any given administration including those of Presidents Trump or Joe Biden and with willing complicity from the mainstream media, then I suggest it crosses the line into the territory that Laing alludes to. It also suggests a potent reason why trust in government is at an all-time low.
Another angle on the psychology of this dynamic is offered by Dr. Kathie Malley-Morrison, a former professor of psychology at Boston University and a member of Massachusetts for Peace Action. In “No, I Can’t Help! Psychic Numbing and How to Confront It, ” she provides a valuable perspective on odd and even bizarre psychological responses to the nuclear war threat that involve either magical thinking around notions of “surviving” or garden-variety denial:
Warnings about the dangers inherent in the availability of nuclear weapons in Russia, the United States, its allies, and other nations can be heard right, left, and center across the political spectrum… Why, then, do we not hear of massive actions against the continued development and sales of nuclear weapons, and the threats by nuclear power countries to use them? One of the answers is psychic numbing—a psychological phenomenon that can affect both individuals and entire cultures in ways that allow atrocities—and existential threats—to grow and spread.
Malley-Morrison points out that psychic numbing is also called “compassion fade.” The article goes on to clarify further:
At the individual level, psychic numbing is a psychological process of desensitization to the pain and suffering of others, particularly as the number of people experiencing pain and suffering increases… Exposure to information about genocides or nuclear holocausts or other catastrophes involving more than a very few people may lead to an emotional shutdown; the very idea of such horrors can seem too painful to tolerate.
She then cites the work of Robert Jay Lifton, an American psychiatrist, while observing that “whole societies or cultures can also be subject to psychic numbing. Within militarized societies, numbing, desensitization, and a general sense of pseudo-inefficacy— the feeling that some problems are so beyond one’s control that one is helpless to solve them—may even be encouraged.”
War and unchecked militarism are unquestionably one of the greatest causes of human suffering. Is humanity now at an existential crossroads where we must simply reject it as an option and wake up to the folly of our own collective self-programming? Given the realities of large-scale polycrisis, a third world war with nuclear, AI, and autonomous weapons in the mix is the last thing humanity needs. Further, it seems abundantly clear that, as governments around the world falter in their efforts to effectively deal with the multi-headed hydra of polycrisis, many are once again falling back on a familiar pattern of state-sanctioned violence against other nations as a “solution” and a means to bolster the power of incumbency.
Sadly, even when large segments of the populace oppose militarism (as is clearly the case here in the U.S.) it has become abundantly clear that our own government will do whatever it pleases without regard to democratic input or sentiment. This might lead us to wonder whether a 2014 Princeton University study stating that true democracy in the U.S. is a thing of the past might not have been painfully accurate. Clearly, the corporate profit-driven machinery of the political establishment and military-industrial-complex can now steamroller over public opinion with cavalier impunity, aided and abetted by both political parties. And while a certain situational adaptability is likely one of the best qualities of the human species, paradoxically, it might also be one of the worse.
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