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fgodlee@bmj com Follow Fiona on Twitter @fgodlee With only days to go before the US presidential election,1 the editors of medical and science journals have entered the political fray with unprecedented unity, voicing their shared concerns about Donald Trump’s record in office and his candidacy for re-election 2 Among them are two US based heavyweights that have traditionally been reticent on party political matters: An editorial published soon after he took office described how his policies were already damaging trust in health science and policy 5 In the three years since then, other editorials have decried Trump’s reneging on global treaties (including on climate change6), his decision to defund WHO,7 his attacks on reproductive rights in the US and worldwide,89 his reversals on gun control,10 and his attempts to reverse the Affordable Care Act, leaving millions of Americans without health insurance 1112 This year Trump’s incompetence has culminated in what Drew Altman calls the US’s “lamentable performance” on covid-19, caused by a failure of policy and leadership 13 As the US clocks up more than eight million cases and more than 225 000 deaths, Trump has become a “political determinant” of the pandemic, say Gavin Yamey and Gregg Gonsalvez 14 Trump downplayed the risks of the virus, delayed action, promoted unproved treatments, and undermined public health interventions BMJ 2020;368: m1103 10 1136/bmj m1103 32229547 7 Sridhar D King L US decision to pull out of World Health Organization
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