Trump Haters’ New Political Strategy: Just Hope He Dies

Trump haters badly want the US president out of the game!

Assassins failed to take Donald Trump out. Impeachment didn’t stick. Not even his disqualification through the courts came through for them. 

So, the Grim Reaper is the new favored candidate for Trump haters. They're now become devoted believers that Trump is on death’s doorstep. And they've turned to armchair medical analysis – their latest great hope. 

It all kicked off with some recent shots of the back of Trump’s hands covered in poorly blended women’s makeup, ostensibly covering some bruising. Social media has been rife with amateur sleuths manipulating the contrast on the images in an attempt to determine whether there are any signs of intravenous puncture that could perhaps be indicative of a serious medical condition – like heart failure. As supporting evidence, they also cite recent shots of his swollen ankles – or “cankles” – debating whether they’re expanding and contracting like an accordion, and if so, what that means for the number of days that he has left, both in power and in life. 

TikTok in particular has given rise to a whole new category of content called “hopecore”, with these Trump haters citing medical or medical-adjacent experience in publishing content opining about how Trump’s days are numbered – although there’s usually much debate over exactly how many. 

It seems that that uncertainty is an irksome source of infuriating frustration for commenters seeking certainty in nailing down the exact amount of time that they have to put up with him. Some even keep spreadsheets, charts, and countdown clocks like they’re managing fantasy football teams, except instead of touchdowns they’re tracking anatomical anomalies. 

Why is this even a thing, though? I guess gossip and speculation makes politics accessible for those who prefer the entry bar to be at floor-level. Policy and issues are complex and require work, particularly when the objective is to eject someone from power. It’s much more fun to just place all hope in fate to do the heavy lifting for you. And to cheer it along on a daily basis with your like-minded tribe. 

Add a hashtag, a TikTok filter, and suddenly it’s an entire movement. One that doesn’t even require you to get off the couch to make you feel like you’re part of something big – like a child tugging an escalator handrail convinced they’re moving everyone to the top.

If there's any consolation, Trump is not alone in this curious, if not crazy situation. There are those who also glom onto every health-related bonne bouche about Russian President Vladimir Putin. Over the years, it’s been reported in Western publications that he’s suffered from strokes, Parkinson’s, “terminal” pancreatic cancer (over a decade ago), thyroid cancer, and leprosy. Again, basically a fantasy football roster of health crises, all projected onto one man. 

I remembered reading that when Trump and Putin had their Anchorage, Alaska rendezvous on August 15, 2025, it was a double whammy field day for the death pool watchers. They zeroed in onto Trump’s somewhat non-linear walk down the tarmac’s red carpet to greet Putin as “proof” of his ongoing decline. Then their radar went off again when Putin shifted his weight from one leg to the other while chatting with Trump. Evidence that he was about to collapse, surely! If not immediately, then imminently! 

Methinks, this death watch, this obsession over Trump's (and even Putin's) every micro-movement reflects a desperate anxiety of sorts by his haters. They feel they have no other option than to depend on fate to do the heavy lifting. And that death through natural biological processes could somehow shift the tectonic plates of the political landscape in their favor.