The prosecution of the Mangione case as a capital crime will only fuel further class anger, which can flow into much more productive avenues of resistance, argues John Clarke 

Last week, Donald Trump’s attorney-general, Pam Bondi, directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the case of Luigi Mangione, who is accused of shooting down a health-insurance executive in New York City at the end of last year. Bondi was able to do this because federal charges have been laid against Mangione. 

According to the Guardian, Bondi justified her decision by characterising the killing as ‘a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.’ She also stressed that she was also advancing ‘President Trump’s agenda to stop violent crime and Make America Safe Again.’ 

Without any doubt, the effort to impose the death penalty in this case will deepen the strong emotions that have been generated by it. Indeed, the shooting and Mangione’s subsequent arrest ‘sparked an outpouring of anger and hatred by many Americans at the health insurance industry, which is notoriously expensive and profits from rejecting claims for medical care.’ 

Wave of sympathy 

Prosecutors will allege that Mangione gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, outside the New York Hilton Midtown on the morning of 4 December last year. He was arrested four days later at a McDonalds restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania and faces a range of charges that include first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism. Police have stated that they found a notebook on Mangione when he was arrested that included writings that ‘express hostility towards the health insurance industry and wealthy executives in particular.’ 

It is easy to understand why a considerable portion of the US population feels a strong hostility to health-insurance companies. An article in The Conversation, published a few days after the shooting, sets out some of the grievances that exist under the US system of privatised healthcare. Almost 10% of the population remains uninsured but insurance coverage offers no guarantee of access to affordable medical treatment. 

The article notes that ‘the affordability and design of health insurance affects people’s health as well as their out-of-pocket costs.’ It considers several methods these companies employ in order to deprive ‘insured patients of the care they need’. This includes the rampant denial of claims, so that ‘nearly 20% of Americans with coverage through health insurance marketplaces … had a claim denied in 2021.’ 

Health providers are also frequently compelled to obtain prior authorisation from insurance companies before proceeding with treatment. This often leads to unwarranted denials and dangerous delays. Insurance companies relentlessly pursue a strategy that has been described as ‘delay, deny, defend’ in order to restrict access to healthcare provision so as to maximise profits. The hardship that this causes and the deep resentment that flows from it produce the anger and resentment that emerged so starkly when the news broke of Thompson’s killing. 

CNN reported last December that ‘a Facebook post by UnitedHealth Group expressing sadness about UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s death received 62,000 reactions – 57,000 of them laughing emojis.’ One post on social media commented that UnitedHealthcare ‘denied my surgery two days before it was scheduled. I was in the hospital finance office in tears (when I was supposed to be at the hospital doing pre-op stuff) … My surgeon spent a day and a half pleading my case to United when she probably should have been taking care of her other patients.’ 

The corporate media has, of course, denounced the outpouring of sympathy for Mangione, even as it tried to downplay its significance. An MSNBC article in February, entitled the ‘romanticizing of Luigi Mangione has gotten out of control’ was fairly typical of the alarm and indignation in high quarters that followed the shooting. 

The article had to acknowledge that a ‘December 2024 Economist/YouGov poll taken shortly after Thompson’s murder found that 21% of U.S. adult citizens viewed Mangione either very favorably or somewhat favorably.’ From this, it drew the shocked conclusion that ‘roughly 1 in 5 Americans … are supportive of someone known only because of his alleged association with an act of political terrorism, using violence against civilians to convey a political message.’ 

Even more alarming, as far as MSNBC was concerned, was the finding that among ‘18- to 29-year-olds … an astounding 39%, view Mangione positively.’ At the same time, only ‘29% viewed Mangione very unfavorably or somewhat unfavorably.’ These are, indeed, incredible findings but we may conclude that the driving force isn’t widespread support for ‘political terrorism’ but a deep-seated sense of outrage at those who profit from human misery on a massive scale. 

I make no suggestion, of course, that the struggle against rapacious insurance companies can or should be advanced by shooting their leading executives. It will require mass mobilisation and political action, rather than desperate individual acts, to achieve this. Nonetheless, the astounding level of support for Mangione, which will only increase now that the death penalty is being sought against him, points to a sense of social outrage that has enormous possibilities. 

Challenging Trump 

The class loyalties that shape the Trump administration’s approach to the workings of the legal system couldn’t be more clear cut. Even as the attorney-general presses for the death penalty in the Mangione case, Trump has just become the first president in US history to pardon a company found guilty of wrongdoing. 

The Intercept reports that, at the beginning of this month, Trump pardoned HDR Global Trading, the company that owns the crypto exchange BitMEX, along with three of the company’s co-founders and one of its employees.  A $100 million fine had been imposed for violations of money-laundering laws that will now be wiped out. This unprecedented presidential conduct, as one consumer advocate put it, ‘has the potential to trigger a lobbying frenzy for any corporation that has faced federal enforcement.’ 

Even more outrageously, the illegally deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia will continue to sit in a notorious prison in El Salvador, which is holding deportees from the US under a special agreement with the Trump administration. Justice Department lawyers went to the Supreme Court to challenge a judge’s order that had been issued to return Garcia to the US and this has now been set aside while the higher court considers the case.  

The Justice Department acknowledges that it sent Garcia to the Central American country because of an ‘administrative error’ and that the deportation was improper. However, it refuses to take action to ensure his return to the US, farcically claiming that it has no power to compel the El Salvadorean government to release their prisoner. Quite obviously, a simple phone call from the White House would lead to Garcia’s immediate return to the US, but Trump and his inner-circle have no intention of assisting the imprisoned man. 

On 5 April, hundreds of thousands rallied across the US in mass ‘Hands Off’ protests that took place in 1,200 locations and in every one of the fifty states. It was far and away the largest show of opposition to Trump since he took office and an indication of the movement of social resistance that is possible as the impacts of his agenda compound. 

The rising tide of anger and the growing determination to fight back that we see in these mass actions expresses the same sense of grievance that led to the extraordinary wave of support for Luigi Mangione. Millions of working-class people understand that Trump, despite his populist pretensions, upholds an unjust and unequal society that rewards health-insurance companies that deny basic healthcare to people all across the US each and every day. Indeed, Trump is engaged in a ruthless class war with the aim of intensifying such injustices massively. 

The act that Luigi Mangione is accused of, while it couldn’t offer a viable way forward, connected with a simmering anger in the US working class. The viciousness with which the Trump administration seeks revenge against him will produce further outrage. It is one of the many factors that are creating the basis for historic class battles in the United States.