# Donald Trump is America's worst mass murderer **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 8, 2021, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980 "2021-01-08T00:34:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/81 "2021-01-22T22:33:36Z")
No it means deliberate, reckless and/or negligent deaths as a result of poor public policy. ---
**Author:** ![MustangSal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mustangsal/32/6327_2.png) [@MustangSal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MustangSal)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/82 "2021-01-22T22:35:49Z")
No it means deliberately killing millions of people. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/83 "2021-01-22T22:42:33Z")
> [@MustangSal](#): > > No it means deliberately killing millions of people. “Millions”? Then your own upthread example of Samuel Little doesn’t even qualify as a mass murderer. It’s not just that you aren’t willing to recognize that there can be two different meanings of a term like “mass murderer”, it’s that you don’t even seem clear about what your own preferred meaning of the term is. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/84 "2021-01-22T22:43:28Z")
Trump is a mass murderer the same way Charles Manson is a mass murderer. ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/85 "2021-01-22T22:44:11Z")
I don’t even think there are two different definitions. I mean there are multiple definitions of murder - one involves deliberately killing someone and another involves someone dying due to your reckless disregard for human life. But mass murder is just those (plus some other possibilities) scaled up. ---
**Author:** ![MustangSal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mustangsal/32/6327_2.png) [@MustangSal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MustangSal)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/86 "2021-01-22T22:45:28Z")
Mass murderer in the context of this thread is a politically charged word by people who do not like Trump. ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/87 "2021-01-22T22:46:01Z")
No it isn’t because he himself has admitted to his reckless disregard for human life. It’s just the textbook definition of mass murder. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/88 "2021-01-22T22:52:11Z")
> [@MustangSal](#): > > Mass murderer in the context of this thread is a politically charged word by people who do not like Trump. Do you have the same objection to the use of the term in the case of Nixon, or Kissinger, or Andrew Jackson? Honestly, calling a politician a “mass murderer” because their policies wantonly or recklessly caused many thousands of deaths is not something that Trump-haters just made up. ---
**Author:** ![MustangSal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mustangsal/32/6327_2.png) [@MustangSal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MustangSal)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/89 "2021-01-22T23:12:27Z")
Trump did not order the deaths of 400000 people. He did not murder 400000 people. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/90 "2021-01-22T23:15:53Z")
No, he is responsible for the deaths of a significant percentage of that figure. Do, please try to keep up. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/91 "2021-01-23T01:31:50Z")
I can almost hear it now: _“I’m a good Mass Murderer. I know more about Mass Murder than anyone. You know, I’m America’s Best Mass Murderer.”_ I think this everytime I read this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/92 "2021-01-23T01:36:16Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Nobody is claiming that Trump ever personally, directly murdered anybody (although if it ever came out that he had, I wouldn’t find it very surprising). I think he’s the only President who’s ever joked about murdering somebody. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/93 "2021-01-23T01:39:22Z")
Let’s not count Trump out yet. Sure he may have only killed a few hundred thousand people with his pandemic policies. But he might end up killing billions of people with his climate change policy. ---
**Author:** ![MrMrmrmr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrmrmrmr/32/5828_2.png) [@MrMrmrmr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrMrmrmr)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/94 "2021-01-24T00:47:05Z")
Well, other Presidents actually have murdered someone. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/95 "2021-01-24T01:03:12Z")
> [@MrMrmrmr](#): > > Well, other Presidents actually have murdered someone Which ones besides Jackson? I don’t feel Cleveland or the various Presidents who served in combat would qualify as murderers. And my point was that it says something bad about Trump’s character that he made a joke about murdering somebody. Of course he also made jokes about raping women. ---
**Author:** ![MrMrmrmr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrmrmrmr/32/5828_2.png) [@MrMrmrmr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrMrmrmr)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/96 "2021-01-24T01:06:45Z")
President Andrew Jackson nearly died in a duel when he killed his opponent, a fellow plantation owner. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/97 "2021-01-24T01:28:14Z")
I guess it depends on your definition of murder. Ronald Reagan’s, > “My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” might fit the bill. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/98 "2021-01-24T04:56:47Z")
> [@MrMrmrmr](#): > > President Andrew Jackson nearly died in a duel when he killed his opponent, a fellow plantation owner. The surprising thing is that Jackson fought over a hundred duels - and only killed one opponent. And of course he survived all of those duels. Apparently a lot of people got shot in duels (Jackson was shot numerous times) but relatively few people actually died. This certainly wasn’t due to the medicine of the era. So I guess guns didn’t work very well back then. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/99 "2021-01-24T07:35:01Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Apparently a lot of people got shot in duels (Jackson was shot numerous times) but relatively few people actually died. This certainly wasn’t due to the medicine of the era. So I guess guns didn’t work very well back then. Dueling pistols back then had massive caliber bullets/balls compared to modern firearms. Even if they weren’t being propelled very well due to the poor quality of gunpowder, they had enough mass to cause grievous wounds, not unlike being shot by a .45 these days. I suspect that surviving a duel had less to do with the shot not doing much damage, but rather with the shot not hitting you at all. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980/100 "2021-01-24T19:47:59Z")
Mass negligent homicide? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-is-americas-worst-mass-murderer/929980.md?page=6)