'Trump is trying to kill you': Paul Krugman warns the president's plans will lead to preventable deaths

New York Times writer Paul Krugman wrote in his Thursday column that President Donald Trump is "trying to kill you" via his aggressive — yet selective — deregulation policies.

"Even if he’s a one-term president, Trump will have caused, directly or indirectly, the premature deaths of a large number of Americans," Krugman wrote.

There's a number of ways this will happen, the columnist noted: at the hands of the white nationalists Trump refuses to denounce and often appears to throw bones to; in the wake of natural disasters like Hurricane Maria, which his administration is still failing to respond to; or via the president and the GOP's continued efforts to kill Obamacare.

"The biggest death toll," however, is likely to come from Trump's selective deregulation agenda, Krugman wrote.

One example of this danger, the columnist added, came in a policy shift that will allow hog plants to be responsible for conducting their own food safety inspections.

"And why not?" Krugman wrote. "It’s not as if we’ve seen safety problems arise from self-regulation in, say, the aircraft industry, have we? Or as if we ever experience major outbreaks of food-borne illness? Or as if there was a reason the U.S. government stepped in to regulate meatpacking in the first place?"

It's not even that Trump, like many self-styled captains of industry, trusts businesses to regulate themselves — but that's "not the whole story," as illustrated by the president's bizarre claim that wind turbines cause cancer.

"Follow the money," the writer implored. "Political contributions from the meat-processing industry overwhelmingly favor Republicans. Coal mining supports the G.O.P. almost exclusively. Alternative energy, on the other hand, generally favors Democrats."

"Whatever the drivers of Trump policy, the fact, as I said, is that it will kill people," he concluded. "Wind turbines don’t cause cancer, but coal-burning power plants do."