The Health Insurance Backlash Will Continue to Grow:
Trump, the GOP, and national Democrats are intensifying the issues that fueled Luigi Mangione’s homicidal violence.
On Tuesday, April 1st, 2025, President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi announced their Justice Department was seeking the death Penalty against Luigi Mangione, the man who assassinated UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on December 4th, 2024. Image credit: The Week.com.
Four days ago, the United States passed the one-hundred and fifty-day mark of President Donald Trump’s second, non-consecutive term in the White House.
Mr. Trump’s second executive administration has mainly concentrated on leveraging the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, Elon Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), the Republican Party (GOP), and the political passivity of so-called “moderate” Democrats in Congress to either eliminate, cut funding for, and reduce the civil workforce of multiple federal agencies.
President Trump and the GOP also appointed vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) to a position of ultimate authority over the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
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Employees of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) hug as they wait in line outside the Mary E. Switzer Memorial Building, following reports that the Trump administration dismissed staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration in Washington, DC, on April 1st, 2025. Photo by Kevin Lamarque and REUTERS.
Simultaneously, the recent decisions of the Trump administration, the national GOP, and “moderate” Democrats, such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, regarding the federal budget have decimated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and all the other federal HHS subagencies.
Moreover, the “MAGA,” Project 2025, and “DOGE” influenced budget cuts could not have come at a worse time for agencies such as the CDC and the NIH. The federal government has already cut over $11 billion in direct support and eliminated about 20,000 jobs at these HHS agencies and other federal departments amid an already fragmented American public health infrastructure.
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Defunding and eliminating the workforce at these agencies have sparked significant discussions about the future of health research, epidemic mitigation, natural disaster preparedness, and social welfare programs that help bolster state and local public health efforts.
As working-class and low-income Americans lose access to vital scientific research, public safety, and social programs aimed at protecting individual health and community welfare, Congressional Democratic leaders and the national media are concentrating heavily on singular political figures such as Mr. Trump, Elon Musk, and US House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
Aside from news coverage of how Mr. Musk’s business empire has financially benefited from his large 2024 campaign contributions to Trump and the GOP, there is virtually no media or political commentary on the key role American corporations have played in weakening and destroying federal, state, and local health agencies.
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Luigi Mangione, accused of the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, was formally charged with four federal crimes and extradited to New York in December 2025. Photo credit: Spencer Platt and Getty Images.
Luigi Mangione’s shocking assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on December 4th, 2024, gave the US a brief chance to address these issues significantly, especially considering Elon Musk’s funding of President-elect Trump’s win just one month earlier.
Mangione’s killing of Brian Thompson was a horrific act of domestic terrorism. Yet, the public’s apparent indifference to Mr. Thompson’s tragic death and concurrent celebration of Mangione’s violent act by some Americans initially raised serious nationwide concerns about a widening class divide and increasing backlash against economic and social elites in the US.
The frustration and widespread public backlash against Brian Thompson, the healthcare insurance industry, and corporate healthcare business practices were so intense that it was palpable. This reaction underscored deep frustration with systemic issues, like the growing inaccessibility of healthcare for “average” working and middle-class Americans, as well as the apparent economic inequality in our society.
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However, the mainstream press soon shifted their focus back to corporate media narratives, emphasizing Luigi Mangione’s privileged upbringing and the legal specifics of his numerous charges following his arrest on December 9th, 2024.
There was absolutely no focus on pertinent facts, such as the over $24.6 million in campaign donations to congressional candidates from both major political parties during the 2023-2024 election cycle. The political action committee (PAC) money was spread almost equally amongst the parties, with $13,825,782 going to Republicans and $10,698,078 going to Democrats.
Instead, national media syndicates and international cable news networks highlighted Trump Attorney General Pam Bondi’s federal efforts to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione.
In the meantime, the Trump administration, the GOP, and the DNC are all moving at a breakneck pace to remove federal regulations from all private business enterprises like the healthcare industry, which donated lavishly to their PACs and individual political campaigns.
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Luigi Mangione, accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, appeared in court for a hearing on Friday, February 21st, 2025, in New York. Photo credit: Steven Hirsch and the Associated Press (AP).
Many voters and healthcare consumers will still be frustrated by an artificial intelligence (AI)-dominated health insurance model that denies numerous medical service requests and insurance claims just as quickly as a corporate CEO takes a sip of their morning Starbucks latte.
The sense of desperation and injustice will only magnify over the next four years as Trump and his cohorts loot the federal treasury.
Unless we make significant efforts to close the widening divide between billionaires and ordinary people, state and local officials managing natural disasters, along with health professionals handling infectious disease outbreaks, and other vital public health responsibilities, will encounter multiplying situations similar to the one that fueled Luigi Mangione’s anger and resentment.