Killings continue to surge under Trump’s destructive rule

While Donald Trump is making headlines losing his war against Iran and his personal grift of billions, the U.S. President is still causing countless deaths, as Alan Austin reports.

RUNNING QUARTERBACK for his local football team, Jairus Jones, aged 16, stole some goods from a Florida Walmart in February.

Very foolish. He deserved to get a stern lecture and a court-ordered work schedule or similar penalty. He didn’t. Instead, he was killed by police.

A total of 735 people have been shot and killed by law enforcement in the USA to the end of June this year, with another 369 injured. This yields the annual rate of 2,208 victims, which will be the highest on record if achieved.

That compares with seven killed by police in Australia in the first half of 2026 and six injured. Canadian police killed 15 suspects, about half by shooting.

America’s political killings surge as Trump’s hate speech intensifies

Data for 2023 shows gun violence increasing as former president Donald Trump campaigns for the top job again.

School and other shootings

American schools have experienced 15 attacks this year, with ten dead and 12 injured.

Since the beginning of 2024, 35 children and staff have been killed in 72 school shootings, with 115 injured.

There have been zero school invasions in Australia in 2024 or since and none in most other advanced nations.

Children aged 0 to 17 killed by firearms in Trump’s America so far this year total 539, with 1,486 injured. Most other advanced nations have zero this year and most years.

Other gun deaths to June 2026 include:

6,419 malicious or accidental homicides;
206 mass shootings;
22 police officers killed and 157 injured;
286 murder suicides; and
632 accidental shootings.

This information is from the independent agency Gun Violence Archive, all with direct links to sources, so considered reliable.

JEFF MCMULLEN: Trump’s war within: How language became a weapon

Donald Trump’s incendiary rhetoric is fuelling a volatile political divide, turning words into weapons on America’s streets.

Trump continues to provoke violence

Trump’s calls for physical assaults against his opponents have not slackened. A list of 40 was published in July 2024, to which another ten threats against domestic critics can now be added.

We have also his violent rhetoric aimed at foreigners:

“We’re going to [bomb the Iranians] back to the stone ages where they belong” (1 April 2026);
‘Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to GOD!’ (4 April 2026);
“If they don’t make a deal, I am blowing up everything over there” (5 April 2026);
‘A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again’ (7 April 2026); and
“There will come a moment when we will... be forced to use military means... the Islamic Republic of Iran will cease to exist!” (28 June 2026).

FBI confirms Trump is the accelerant

All classifications of assaults in the United States show steady decreases from the 1970s onwards as law enforcement has improved, racial tensions have eased and living conditions have improved.

Then, in 2015, the pact between Trump and Fox News was confirmed, giving Trump open access to all of Rupert Murdoch’s TV talk programs in exchange for making all major announcements first on Fox. These included his incitements to violence.

As analysed HERE, HERE and HERE, this resulted in huge exposure for Trump, increased ratings for Fox — and thousands more murders. See chart below.

Other FBI datasets showing similar trajectories include:

violent assault incidents;
police officers shot on duty;
mass shootings;
all hate crime murders and manslaughters; and
total gun homicides.

Increasing deaths from disease

Evidence is mounting that fatalities from heart disease, influenza, cervical cancer and other preventable illnesses are surging under the inept health administration of Robert Kennedy Jr. Unfortunately, official numbers have been unreliable since the professional statisticians were sacked.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention report influenza infections in 2026 hit new records with 11 million illnesses, 120,000 hospitalisations and 5,000 deaths.

The American Public Health Association (APHA) claims Kennedy’s anti-science agenda has been “a wrecking ball” for public health.

APHA CEO Dr Georges Benjamin said:

“Mr Kennedy's tenure can best be described as chaotic. Broken promises, administrative incompetence, professional neglect — this puts the public's health at extraordinary risk. People are sicker and dying sooner because of his policies.”

Brutality and deaths surge again as Trump provokes racist hatred

Increasing fatalities confirm that the period of healing in the United States under President Joe Biden is over.

Americans now die earlier

The latest World Bank data show that life expectancy declined sharply immediately after Trump entered politics in 2015. That year, it was 78.69 years, which ranked 28th among the 38 developed OECD member countries.

By 2021, after gross mismanagement of the COVID pandemic and countless deaths from other causes, this tumbled to 76.33 years, ranking 30th. Longevity increased marginally in 2022 to 77.43 years, but the ranking fell further to 31st.

From 2015 to 2022, the USA suffered the worst life expectancy decline of all rich nations, losing 1.26 years. A majority of 26 saw an increase over that period, including Australia, which added 0.8 years.

Fortunately, life expectancy recovered during Joe Biden’s presidency, reaching an all-time high of 78.89 in 2024, the latest data available.

Multiple instances of wanton havoc

Other Trump travesties include Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers effectively authorised to kill citizens while hunting illegal immigrants, deaths from exposure among the homeless, farmer suicides following foreclosures resulting from Trump’s destructive tariffs, drug overdoses associated with untreated mental conditions, and deaths from worsening environmental hazards.

Abroad, people killed by Trump’s military forces are above 300 in Latin America, about 7,400 in the Middle East and multiple thousands in Africa. Americans killed are not reported.

Trump’s most devastating decision, however, remains slashing USAID in 2025, which prestigious medical journal Lancet claims ‘could result in more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, including 4.5 million among children younger than five years’.

This could all end with Trump’s impeachment after the midterm elections in November, if enough Americans so choose.

Too late, however, for Trump’s flu and measles victims, farmers who have lost their properties and their lives, and young footballer, Jairus Jones.

Alan Austin is an Independent Australia columnist and freelance journalist. You can follow him on Twitter @alanaustin001 and Bluesky @alanaustin.bsky.social.