Trump and his regime are EVIL
NAMING IT: The Trump regime is evil, and so is Trump.
In the two months since Trump’s inauguration, the risks to the safety, security, health, and freedom of Americans have never been greater. Every single day we are flooded with news of the latest authoritarian, tyrannical, dangerous, and cruel actions of Trump and his administration. The actions of this Trump regime are evil. There are people in the Trump administration who are evil. Their intentions are evil. The harm and suffering they are causing is evil. The word evil should never be used lightly, but if we don’t recognize it when we see it and name it for what it is, there is even less hope of finding the courage to face it and fight it with all our might.
Evil has been the subject of extensive philosophical, theological, and psychological inquiry for decades. 1 There are theoretical complexities in developing a comprehensive definition of evil as a moral concept; however, it is generally understood as the malicious and intentional infliction of unnecessary harm, suffering, or injustice that significantly violates moral norms and human rights and dignity.
Let’s start NAMING the actions of the Trump regime that are evil:
THIS IS EVIL: Unlawfully sending 261 individuals to El Salvador’s notoriously cruel Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
THIS IS EVIL: The potential outcomes of the destruction of USAID.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/health/usaid-cuts-deaths-infections.html
up to 18 million additional cases of malaria per year, and as many as 166,000 additional deaths;
200,000 children paralyzed with polio annually, and hundreds of millions of infections;
one million children not treated for severe acute malnutrition, which is often fatal, each year;
more than 28,000 new cases of such infectious diseases as Ebola and Marburg every year.
THIS IS EVIL: The unlawful arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student activist and lawful permanent resident of the United States.
THIS IS EVIL: The nomination and confirmation of unqualified, incompetent, sycophantic, dangerous, and disreputable people to the most critical positions in the US government.
THIS IS EVIL: Abandoning Ukraine and our NATO allies and aligning with Putin.
Are those enough? Here are some more examples of evil—and remember—all this has happened in the first two months of the Trump regime:
The erasure of everything related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) throughout government agencies and federally funded programs.
The executive orders that target and dehumanize transgender individuals.
The announcement and removal of security protections from former government officials, including Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, and Dr. Fauci—all of whom have been targets of credible death threats. 2
The unlawful firing of tens of thousands of qualified, competent, and experienced government career professionals resulting in the destabilization of the government.
Causing immense fear and uncertainty for millions of Americans with threats to cut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security to fund tax cuts for billionaires.
The AI-generated video of the “Gaza Riviera”, depicting the devastation in Gaza, transformed into a Trump resort with a gold statue of him at the center.
Withdrawal from the Climate Compensation Fund3 and reforms and potential cuts to funding of the Environmental Protection Agency. 4
Threatening Canada, the Panama Canal, and Greenland with annexation fantasies that lead to destabilization, fear, and retaliation.
Threatening Canada, Mexico, and China with tariffs and a trade war that will lead to unnecessary economic harm to the economies of those countries as well as the US.
Withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), making the US and the world less safe from infectious diseases and public health emergencies (i.e., pandemics). 5
Haphazardly restructuring and cutting funding to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), weakening our public health infrastructure 6 and significant cuts to federal funding for scientific research, which is wreaking havoc at universities and research centers across the country. 7
Firing seventeen inspectors general and top military lawyers, thereby eliminating independent oversight. 8
Offering a blanket pardon and clemency to 1500 January 6th domestic terrorists.
Threatening universities that do not dismantle DEI initiatives.
Destroying the Department of Education.
These are just some examples of things the Trump regime has done, is in the process of doing, or has threatened to do that are evil or likely to have consequences that are evil. There are many more that could be included, and inevitably another five or ten new ones could be added by the end of next week. It may be argued that one or more of the items on the list do not, in and of themselves, perfectly meet the definition of evil. Maybe. But taken as a whole, these actions and their consequences point to a regime that maliciously and intentionally inflicts unnecessary harm, suffering, or injustice, violating moral norms, human rights, and dignity. A regime that is evil.
Not only are the actions of Trump’s regime evil, but Donald Trump himself is evil. He is an evil person. For the past ten years that we have had to endure him on the national stage, he has shown us that he is devoid of empathy and compassion for others. He encourages violence, he is a convicted felon, he causes chaos and confusion, insults opponents, delights in revenge and retribution, stokes fear, is remorseless, and is an utterly joyless and humorless human being. He is racist, homophobic, transphobic, a bully, and a misogynist. He is a compulsive liar and a malignant narcissist. 9 10 He is evil and the harm and division he has caused and is causing to our country may be irreparable.
Marcus Singer describes evil as “the worst possible term of opprobrium imaginable.”11 Evil goes far beyond ordinary wrongdoing and is the most severe moral condemnation possible. It is that serious. We must have the courage to use the word evil to describe Trump and his regime so that we can deal most effectively with what is happening.
What we need to do
Strenuously object whenever we encounter normalizing, sanewashing, minimizing, or denying the evil inherent in the actions of Trump and his regime.
Fight against growing numb, paralyzed, overwhelmed, and despairing.
Embrace outrage.
Use whatever platforms we have to call out the evil we are witnessing every day.
Use the 5 calls app every day to protest and resist.
Make plans to participate in the April 5th, 2025 nationwide protest.
Conclusion
Naming Trump and his regime evil is just the first step. There is a very long and scary road ahead. I don’t know where it is going to lead or where or how it will end. All I know is that we are all on that road together, whether we like it or not. We are each going to have to decide what we can do and how we are going to find the courage to face and fight the evil of Trump and his regime.
“Asked to sum up Trump’s personality for an article in Vanity Fair, Howard Gardner, a psychologist at Harvard, responded, “Remarkably narcissistic.” George Simon, a clinical psychologist who conducts seminars on manipulative behavior, says Trump is “so classic that I’m archiving video clips of him to use in workshops because there’s no better example” of narcissism. “Otherwise I would have had to hire actors and write vignettes. He’s like a dream come true. “ (From The Mind of Donald Trump)
Marcus G. Singer, “The Concept of Evil,” Philosophy, Vol. 79, No. 308 (April 2004): 185–214. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal Institute of Philosophy. DOI: 10.1017/S0031819104000166.
Indeed …all truth. Resist protest…There are more protests every day that are not getting attention.
I grew up in a Catholic culture where this word was overused..anything we disagreed with was 'evil'..cheapened the meaning.. so I fasted from it for a long time to cleanse it and let it become again the potent word it's meant to be.
Shamans helped.
Now Heather you restore it to it's rightful place..naming the seriousness, the intent to destroy, the anti life compulsion, the distortion and gleeful hatred, the eroticization of brutality.
There is a soul wound in our culture that has allowed evil to fester. The first step must be correct diagnosis. I bet this was not easy to write.