Blades, Bullets, and the Trump Doctrine: Why Republicans Bleed for America

Blades, Bullets, and the Trump Doctrine: Why Republicans Bleed for America

From the guillotines of Revolutionary France to the assassination of Lincoln, the shooting of Reagan, and the near-death of Trump, history shows that Republicans have paid the highest price for keeping America free. Murder rates drop when strong leadership enforces law and order, and if we want this nation to survive the next storm — at home or abroad — we need leaders with the backbone to do what must be done, no apologies given.

By: Paul Grant Truesdell, J.D., AIF, CLU, ChFC, RFC

September 11, 2025

Authors Note:

This piece was written five days before the assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah and was scheduled to go live on my website on September 11, 2025 — a date I chose intentionally because of its historical weight, not because of what would tragically happen just yesterday. This is not opportunistic writing. The timing is what it is, and frankly, it underscores the point I’ve been making for years: political violence in this nation is no longer a theory — it’s reality.

Yesterday, I was having an “early business dinner, late business lunch” when my phone lit up with a rapid-fire series of notifications. I knew immediately something bad was happening. You see, I have a system of alerts that is highly structured — it covers investment data, wealth and economic events, war, terrorism, and political developments, including deaths and assassinations. The system allows me to engage with others, conduct business, and have a somewhat normal life. Okay, somewhat might be an exaggeration. 

The assassination of Charlie Kirk triggered the system.

I calmly cut my external engagement short, returned to my office, and got to work while driving and immediately upon arrival. Those with me saw my reaction — measured, steady, deliberate. You should know, that when I am loud, that’s no big deal. But when I get quiet and methodical, I’m in the zone. And so, while at the restaurant, I pulled out a legal pad, started writing, making notes, asking the six questions I always ask: who, what, where, when, why, how, and which. Calls and texts flew. At one point, I told someone, “I just completed that piece on this very subject…” and my thoughts went immediately to President Trump, to the attempts on his life, to Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Reagan — and the pattern that Republicans keep bleeding for this country while Democrats keep screaming that we’re the problem. And then I got somewhat sick to my stomach with, who else, what if, and we’re coming up on September 11th.

So much ran through my mind in the afternoon and evening hours of yesterday. So many notes filled so many pages. And one thought kept repeating itself

This assassination just moved the needle. Substantially. And it will continue to do so. 

That is why I am publishing the following exactly as it was written — not to seize a moment, but to demonstrate what connecting the dots really looks like. I didn’t have a crystal ball when I wrote this. I didn’t need one. I simply watched the trends, connected the data points, and refused to lie to myself about where this country is heading.

This is not just commentary. This is a warning. Political assassination has returned to the forefront of American life. And unless this country gets serious about law, order, and leadership, what happened to Charlie Kirk will not be the last.

Part 1: America vs. the Guillotine Crowd

When people talk about the death penalty in America, you’d think we’re running guillotines on every street corner. You’d think the United States is this bloodthirsty nation, obsessed with killing people. But here’s the truth — and I’ll say it the way it needs to be said — America has never, ever been in the same league as the so-called “civilized nations” that turned execution into a conveyor belt.

Take France. Everyone loves to romanticize the French Revolution — liberty, equality, fraternity. What they don’t like to talk about is the Reign of Terror. Between 1793 and 1794, about 17,000 people were officially executed by guillotine. Thousands more died in prison, or in kangaroo trials, or were simply butchered without process. Think about that: in just two years, France killed more of its own citizens than America has executed in the past two centuries combined.

And here’s the kicker: France didn’t retire the guillotine until 1977. Nineteen seventy-seven. Jimmy Carter was president, disco was at its peak, Elvis had just died — and France was still dropping blades on people’s necks in the town square. The death penalty wasn’t abolished there until 1981. For nearly two hundred years, the guillotine was the “humane” method of execution. Humane? Tell that to the thousands who were marched up the wooden stairs and given a split-second of dignity before their heads hit the basket.

Now compare that with the United States. Yes, we’ve had executions. Hanging was the standard for most of our history, followed later by electrocution, gas, and lethal injection. But let’s be honest: our numbers are small. Since the founding of this country, we’ve executed somewhere in the range of 15,000 people total. That’s across nearly 250 years. Do the math — that’s an average of about 60 per year, and most years were far fewer than that.

Fast forward to modern times. Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, we’ve executed just over 1,600 people nationwide. That’s 1,600 across almost fifty years. Today, we average about 20 to 25 executions a year, in a country of more than 330 million people. Most years, the number is so low that you could fit all the executed inmates into a medium-sized courtroom.

So don’t lecture me about how America is “bloodthirsty.” Don’t trot out the talking points about how Republicans are obsessed with the death penalty. Our system is the exact opposite of bloodthirsty. It’s cautious, deliberate, and painfully slow. Criminals spend decades on appeals. Families of victims wait years for closure that often never comes. If anything, America has bent so far backward in favor of due process that it’s a miracle any executions happen at all.

And that’s the point. We are not France with the guillotine. We are not some dictatorship mowing down citizens in mass graves. We are a nation that, whether you like it or not, still believes in trials, juries, appeals, and a process that gives even the guilty a fighting chance. That is not brutality. That is restraint. That is civilization.

So the next time someone tries to paint the United States as barbaric because we still have capital punishment, remind them of the facts. Remind them that France — the country of baguettes and wine — kept the guillotine until 1977. Remind them that our total executions in two and a half centuries don’t even equal the number killed in Paris in a single year of revolutionary madness.

The real story isn’t that America is too harsh. The real story is that America is one of the few nations that still has the guts to say some crimes are so horrific, some acts are so vile, that the ultimate penalty is still on the table. That’s not brutality — that’s justice. And compared to the rest of the world, our record proves we’ve shown more mercy than we’re ever given credit for.

Part 2: Democide on a Global Scale

If you thought France was bad with its guillotines, buckle up. Because when you start looking at the twentieth century, you realize what real brutality looks like. I’m talking about governments that didn’t just execute a handful of murderers after years of trials and appeals. I’m talking about regimes that murdered their own citizens by the tens of millions — deliberately, systematically, and without blinking.

Start with Russia. Stalin didn’t just run a police state. He turned the entire Soviet Union into ...