Also because their hearts are corrupted, and the things which they are willing to bring upon others, and love to have others suffer, may come upon themselves to the very uttermost;
A real-time digital tracking initiative by Boston epidemiologist Brooke Nichols indicates that as of early December 2025 more than 661,000 people have died due to the Trump administration’s defunding of foreign aid and the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Approximately 446,500 of these deaths were children.
Acccording to a report in The Lancet, if these cuts are not reversed, an estimated 14 million additional deaths may occur by 2030. This will include the deaths of 4-5 million children under the age of 5.
The Trump administration claims that USAID had “strayed from its original mission” and that its funding is not aligned with core U.S. national interests. It is telling that saving human lives is not seen by the current administration as being in our national interest. My question is whether saving lives is no longer important to Christians.
What would Jesus have to say about this?
I am come that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
– John 10:10
Elections have consequences
In 2024, 81% of white evangelical Protestants voted for Donald Trump. In that same election, 64% of American Latter-day Saints also voted for Trump. His percentage of the LDS vote in Nevada, Arizona, and Utah was over 70%.
It can be easy to cast a ballot, especially in Utah with its statewide mail-in voting. But when one’s electoral choices lead directly to a dramatic increase in financial corruption, the unnecessary spreading of infectious disease, brutal kidnappings by masked agents of the government, and the mass death of children, that voter is morally responsible for the suffering they have helped to create.
I hold every Trump voter personally responsible for the corruption, violence, and death that Trump’s policies are causing. Political naivete can no longer be an excuse! Most of these people still choose to ignore his obvious character flaws (and the scriptural warnings against such people) and have voted for him 3 times!
As for my fellow Latter-day “Saints,” I must, once again, insist that they wake up. MAGA Republicans are, in a very real way, accessories to mass murder. I strongly believe that no one who continues to assent to Trump’s ongoing crimes against humanity can ever be cleansed and sanctified by the blood of Jesus. They must humble themselves and repent – bigly!
Additional Sources:
— “Religion and the 2024 Presidential Election,” PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute), November 8, 2024.
Gitanjali Poonia, “Who did U.S Latter-day Saints vote for?” Deseret News, November 18, 2024.
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I do believe that many government departments have become bloated, spending more than the budget allows. The result is a non-sustainable deficit. As sad as it is, many agencies needed to have their budgets cut. I have never believed that humanitarian aid was one.
Our Church owned newspaper the Deseret News has failed to see the threat Trump is to democratic and constitutional government, so no wonder so many LDS can’t see it. It’s going to take a long time, if ever, to erase this stain.
I agree with calling out MAGA for the pointless destruction of USAID, and the silence over the humanitarian implications, particularly, in contrast with tax cuts for wealthiest, and pardons for Maga criminals and Trump boasting about the gold adorments splashed all over what is left of the White House. That exact set of values is harshly denounced in the Book of Mormon.