Dmitry Orlov

The United States has a long and proud tradition of assassinating or otherwise disposing of leaders it doesn’t like. Over a period of almost four decades, their actions progressed from at least superficially legalistic to downright bloodthirsty and barbaric. Observe the trend:

• Those who are old enough perhaps remember how, in 1990, Bush-père tormented the tiny Central American nation of Panama under the pretext of fighting the “drug trade”, but really to mitigate against his “wimp factor.” American troops killed several hundred Panamanians and caused significant material damage for the sake of capturing Manuel Noriega, a CIA asset. Noriega then served a 17-year sentence in Miami, Florida.

• In 1999, under Clinton, the Americans bombed Yugoslavia and then left President Slobodan Milošević to die of untreated medical problems in prison. Already, very little pretense was made of offering him justice or due process.

• In 2003, under Bush-fils, the US invaded Iraq, installed a puppet regime and hanged president Saddam Hussein. Hussein’s execution was broadcast on live television. The fact that he was hanged as opposed to buried alive, burned at the stake or fed to wild beasts is a testament to America’s abiding humanism.

• In 2011, under Obama, the bombing of Libya began, followed by the brutal public torture and assassination of Gaddafi, accompanied by the mad cackle, right on camera, of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “We came, we saw, he died!” quoth she.

• On January 3, 2026, the entire world saw Venezuelan President Maduro captured by the Americans and led away in handcuffs, along with his 69-year-old wife, Flores, also handcuffed and with a bruise covering half her face. The next day Maduro was driven around New York in an open van while crowds cheered. Given that he was charged with crimes under US laws which do not apply to Venezuela, he and his wife are, essentially, kidnapping victims.

• On February 26, 2026, in the midst of US-Iran negotiations, US forces assassinated Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Four more members of his family, including his one-year-old granddaughter, were also killed in an airstrike. And so the US has advanced from political assassinations to assassinating religious leaders.

Why do Americans do this? Assassinating national leaders is perhaps the least effective way to solve political problems. An answer to this question was offered some time ago by the journalist Michael Bohm: “Because we can.” This is the same reason that a dog licks its testicles: because it can. The United States consistently records a murder rate 5 to 7 times higher than other developed, affluent nations. It’s just something Americans like to do, you see.

To be fair, Americans can, and do, assassinate plenty of their own leaders:

• 1865: Abraham Lincoln
• 1881: James A. Garfield
• 1901: William McKinley
• 1963: John F. Kennedy

Attempted assassinations also make quite a formidable list:

• 1835: Andrew Jackson
• 1912: Theodore Roosevelt
• 1933: Franklin D. Roosevelt
• 1950: Harry S. Truman
• 1975: Gerald Ford (twice!)
• 1981: Ronald Reagan
• 2024-6: Donald Trump

Donald Trump is a special case because a considerable fraction of the American populace suffers from a certain psychiatric condition that has been termed “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” They would very much like to see him dead, to such an extent that a certain artist by the name of Cathy Griffin even posed with a papier-maché dummy of Trump’s bloodied, severed head.

Just to be sure that I am not misunderstood: I am not in favor of assassinating anyone. I take the First Commandment (“Thou shalt not kill”) quite literally. But as far condemning the acts of murder committed by others, I adhere to the admonition “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” (Matthew 7:1)

In 2026, a supposed assassin managed to nick Trump’s ear. Some say that the whole event was a carefully staged bit of election campaign theater; perhaps in half a century we’ll know the truth, perhaps not. The point is, the assassination attempt failed.

Since then, two more hapless assassins have made their attempts, all to no avail. Considering the state of the Secret Service, assassinating Trump should be a fairly trivial task; and yet he is still alive. Why?

I believe that at some point God has flipped a switch on America. It went from a “can do nation” to a “no can do nation.” Since then, it can’t elect, or even nominate, anyone remotely competent as president (both Biden and Trump were and are clearly unfit to serve as presidents and Clinton-madame wouldn’t have been any better). The US failed to win a proxy war against Russia (in the Ukraine), a trade war against China or a direct military confrontation with Iran. It’s a sad state of affairs, but there you have it.

Should Americans choose to ask themselves “Why is Trump still our president?” the answer is clear: “Because you can’t” do anything about it, that’s why!

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