Ideas

MAGA’s War on Empathy

This crisis in Minneapolis reveals a deep moral rot at the heart of Trump’s movement.

First published in The Atlantic on January 29, 2026.

by Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Atlantic

February 5, 2026 | reading time: 16 Min.

When I first saw the video of the killing of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital, I immediately thought of the parable of the Good Samaritan. Federal agents shot Pretti after he tried to help a woman they had thrown to the ground and pepper-sprayed. Jesus tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves and help those in need. “Do this and you will live,” he says. Not in Donald Trump’s America.