I was saddened to read Hunter Biden’s comments to the BBC providing an update on his father’s prostate cancer. The younger Biden reports that his father’s cancer has spread significantly. He described the cancer as “debilitating” and “painful.” The news, while not entirely unexpected, is disturbing. Biden is a good man.
After watching Hunter Biden’s interview, I recall not-so-kind words about President Biden that the current President made in May 2025. Trump remarked, “If you feel sorry for him, don’t feel so sorry because he’s vicious… And so, I really don’t feel sorry for him.” That was disturbing.
I checked Truth Social as I wrote this column. The President doesn’t seem to have commented again on Biden’s cancer. I hope he doesn’t.
What happened to Donald Trump’s empathy? Hundreds of thousands of amateur psychologists have given us answers, some quite convincing. The President has dismissed them, often with a diagnosis of his own—Trump Derangement Syndrome.
The bottom line is that I wish Trump could show a bit of empathy.
Sadly, examples of indifference, apathy, and antipathy are all around us these days. One example is a disgusting comment made by Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), now a candidate for Governor of Alabama. Tuberville, jumping on the lynch-Dr. Fauci bandwagon, had this to say recently: “I’ll be the governor of Alabama and I promise you one thing, we will find out if there’s a possibility that we can bring him to Alabama to put him in front of a court and a jury to see if we can put this guy in prison.” Tuberville also said, “He killed millions of people, folks.”
Dr. Fauci, who helped lead the government’s response to Covid during an extremely difficult and confusing time, is now 85-years old and has been a resolute public servant for several decades.
I also see examples of indifference to people facing hunger, lack of access to healthcare, inadequate housing and more. I see the harsh treatment of undocumented people by ICE. Call them “illegals,” if you must, but they are human beings. They deserve to be treated as such.
In the case of human suffering. I find the juxtapositioning of the gilding of the White House, the UFC fights at the White House, a Guiness Book of World Records fireworks display, and the upcoming Formula One car race on the streets of Washington, to be examples of indifference. Each of these things, as well as weekly trips to golf clubs and the purchase of 250 new Cadillac Escalades for the Secret Service, are evidence of an indifference to the suffering of our fellow Americans. These people are also Donald Trump’s and the Republican party’s fellow Americans.
Remember LBJ’s War on Poverty and historic civil rights legislation, we could use more of that now. Johnson may have been wrong on the Vietnam War, but will also be remembered for his empathy.
Additional examples of lack of empathy—I would call antipathy–are all around us. On a daily basis, we see nasty name-calling, retribution through the abuse of the legal system against people like James Comey and Letitia James (New York Attorney General), and things like denying Fauci and people like former National Security Advisor John Bolton, Secret Service protection. Why is the President spending so much time, and so much of our money, venting anger, and seeking retribution?
America is in crisis. Many of us sense that something is rotten. There is much rottenness in Washington these days, and one of those things is lack of empathy.
May God help the United States.
J.E. Dean writes on politics, government, goldendoodles, and other subjects. A former counsel on Capitol Hill and public affairs consultant, Dean is an advocate for democracy, sanity, and the rule of law.