I have long admired Robert Mueller. A Bronze Star combat veteran, a man of deep faith, and a lifelong public servant, he embodied a quiet, disciplined patriotism that has become all too rare. He bled for this country in Vietnam, graduated from Princeton, led with integrity, and spent decades serving the American people — not himself.
When Mueller died Friday night at 81, after years battling Parkinson’s disease, Donald Trump responded with this: “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
If “patriot” had a human definition, it could be Robert Mueller. If “pathetic” needed one, it would be Donald Trump.
Trump’s remark, while beyond crude, was in character. For years, he has spouted insults, cruelty, and bile, but even by his standards, celebrating the death of a man who served his country with honor marks a new low. It was gleeful, venomous, and utterly devoid of basic human decency.
And it wasn’t an anomaly.
Trump has repeatedly demeaned the dead, especially those he viewed as adversaries. He blew up when flags were flown at half-staff for John McCain, a war hero and former prisoner of war, and reportedly called him a loser.
He mocked Congressman John Dingell at a rally, suggesting he might be “looking up” from hell. Within hours of Colin Powell’s death, Trump dismissed him as a “classic RINO.”
He even mocked grief itself. He used Jimmy Carter’s death to take a swipe at Joe Biden. He reportedly told a grieving military widow that her husband “knew what he signed up for.”
After offering to pay for the funeral of murdered Army soldier Vanessa Guillén, he allegedly fumed over the cost, saying, "It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a f---ing Mexican!”
This atrociousness - and there is more - reflects the wretchedly stinky, anti-Christ, cankled, bone-spurred excuse for an abhorrent human being that Trump is. I will say that about him while he’s alive, and when he dies.
I was raised to believe you don’t speak ill of the dead. My grandmother held that belief firmly. But I’ve written critically about repulsive figures like Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, and Anita Bryant after their deaths, and I didn’t soften my words. I called out harm where harm was done.
The instinct to avoid criticizing the dead exists to protect the grieving, not to shield powerful figures from the consequences of their actions. When someone has spent their life dehumanizing others, like Trump, speaking honestly about that record is not disrespect, it is a civic and moral responsibility.
But here’s what Trump cannot, or will not, grasp: Robert Mueller did not harm people. He was a public servant doing his job. His supposed “offense” was investigating Trump. That’s it.
Mueller targeted no vulnerable communities. He didn’t traffic in cruelty. He followed the evidence, methodically and professionally, as he had done his entire career. Trump’s abhorrent comments about Mueller only impressed Satan.
Trump has a compulsive need to make everything about himself, no matter how low the moment. Each time someone of genuine stature dies, someone with more dignity, restraint, and service in their smallest gesture than Trump has ever displayed, he sinks further to the depths of Satan himself.
Even some on the right seemed to recognize the line he crossed. William Kristol, editor-at-large of The Bulwark, asked on “Bulwark Takes” whether anyone would still uphold dignity and respect for those who serve in public life in light of Trump’s comments about Mueller.
The ability to possess dignity is something Trump has never possessed.
But there is a larger consequence here, one Trump has either failed to consider or arrogantly dismissed. Trump is writing the script for how the world will respond to his own death.
History offers examples. When Osama bin Laden was killed, there were celebrations. Saddam Hussein’s execution was met with relief. Even Hitler’s death, though it came too late for millions, allowed the world to exhale.
Those men built legacies of suffering, and history judged them accordingly.
Trump is not Hitler, and this is not that comparison. But Trump has caused real and lasting harm. It’s a brutal harm that is documented, measurable, and ongoing. Families separated. Rights stripped away. Democratic norms eroded. Vulnerable communities targeted. Injuries and deaths from wars he started on a whim.
So what happens when he dies?
First, I am not among those calling for or hoping for his death. That would be too easy of an escape from accountability. But death comes for everyone, including demented men like Trump who imagine themselves untouchable.
When that moment arrives, it will not be marked by quiet reflection. It will not be a universally solemn occasion. It will be something far more complicated, and far more revealing.
There will be mourning, certainly, from MAGA loyalists and true believers. There will be attempts to rewrite, sanitize, and mythologize. But there will also be something else that will be much, much more profound.
There will be an unmistakable sense of release and celebration among millions who have lived through the tyranny of Trump .
Not everyone will say it out loud. Many won’t need to. But at the same time, it will be looked at as a victory, and there will be public celebrations, joyous social media posts, and high-fives worldwide.
Because Trump has spent years exhibiting behavior that strips away the expectation of grace and comfort in death. As such, he has kicked open a door that cannot be closed.
Trump has mused that he likely won’t go to heaven. I won’t argue the point. But what matters more, and what will endure, is the legacy he leaves behind here - one that spews vindictiveness and smallness that no amount of revisionism will erase.
When Trump dies, it won’t be pretty. He won’t get a state funeral like Jimmy Carter did, that’s for sure. Perhaps the best way to “honor” Trump would be to slide his corpse down the garbage shoot at Trump Tower, and let the NYC Department of Sanitation bury him at FreshKills Landfill on Staten Island.