Princes of Darkness

Illustration by Michael DiMilo

By Geoff Carter

We’ve survived another Halloween season, which, regrettably (to me at least), is becoming more and more of a Hallmark holiday. Increasingly elaborate costumes, extravagant home decorations, and a growing cornucopia of movies and limited series have inundated us for weeks—if not months, but the psychopathic killers, monsters, aliens, and werewolves have now finally gone home for the year.

One species of these monstrous creatures, however, seems to be here to stay, a creature who rises from the dead and who lives off the lifeblood of others—I speak of vampires. Of course. While fictional versions of these monsters have been with us since Bram Stoker, Bela Lugosi, and F.W. Murnau, and are alive and well in today’s cinematic universe with the likes of Sinners, the Nosferatu remake, and Renfield, an iteration of their species exists among us today. They walk among us—although not near us—specifically as members of the one-percenters and their lackeys in the Republican Party.

Vampires, as we all know, prey on the weak-minded, seducing them, hypnotizing them before drinking their blood. They not only sap their victims of their blood but crush their spiritsn and steal their souls before finally transforming them into undead insatiable creatures themselves. They are carriers spread who the disease of soullessness. They are parasites.

What exactly do the one-percenters, and their Republican allies, do to deserve this? Why do I call them vampires? Because they are sucking the lifeblood out of the lives of average Americans. Not their literal lifeblood, but their wealth, health, and liberty, and by taking these things, they are robbing them of their prosperity and their futures. Our futures. 

And, like the vampires in Let Me In, From Dusk till Dawn, or The Lost Boys, Republicans seduce their followers into their realm of hate and fear with open hands and smiling faces. Dracula seduced young women with his magnetic presence. He pulled them into his sphere of evil where they become undead—soulless beings themselves who follow the Prince of Darkness without thought and without question. And so it is with MAGA who follow their own prince, Donald Trump.

Republicans have told us for decades that cutting taxes to the rich will spur economic growth and create prosperity for all. This concept of “trickle-down economics” which has survived all those years in one iteration or another, is complete and utter nonsense. It has never worked, and it never will. Yet it survives, like the undead. Its latest incarnation is Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” which slashed taxes for the ultra-rich by cutting Medicaid and SNAP funding, slashing spending for the EPA, halting subsidies for ACA credits, killing federal subsidies for renewable energy, and granting sweetheart deals for the coal and industry by opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other protected grounds for drilling. And so much more. This is all a gift from President Trump, lifeblood for the greedy vampiristic parasites who are presently running the country.

The Republicans and their rich friends, led by Trump, the Prince of Darkness himself, are stealing food, healthcare, educational opportunities, equity, and prosperity from the pockets average Americans to fill their own coffers, to satisfy their unholy thirst for wealth and power. 

As a desperate defense against these onslaughts, the Democrats have refused to pass the latest budget bill until Republicans extend subsidies for up to twenty-four million Americans on Obamacare. Republican House leader Mike Johnson (Trump’s own Renfield) has refused to convene the House to even discuss this, even as SNAP benefits, which feed millions of Americans, have run out of money.

Now, to fulfill their ungodly needs, the MAGA vampires are taking bread directly from the mouths of forty-two million Americans, including children. They have—and are currently refusing—to fund SNAP even though they have been ordered to do so by a court order. Yes, the Prince of Darkness and his minions would rather starve children than give up any of their wealth or power—or even talk about compromise. 

The number of these soulless and subhuman creatures seem to be on the rise. In an incident reminiscent of the filmBloodRayne: The Third Reich, a Nazi vampire film, messages from a private group chat of young Republican leaders contained pro-Nazi messages, including praise and admiration for Adolf Hitler. Comments like “I love Hitler” and “Everyone who votes no is going to the gas chamber,” attributed to Peter Yuna, chair of the New York State Young Republicans, have led to widespread censure because Nazis, like vampires, are evil soulless creatures who destroy souls, lives, and families. 

Of course, this type of hateful pro-Nazi rhetoric is meant to instill fear because fear divides and separates. Trump, the Prince of Darkness, has learned this lesson well. As Count Dracula fortified himself in his forbidding castle, terrorizing the local peasantry, Trump hides in Mar-a-Lago, occasionally inviting his vampire friends to his hedonistic festivals. To intimidate the peasantry, Trump has deployed ICE, his own private army, under the ploy of arresting supposedly “dangerous criminal” immigrants, has arrested, detained, brutalized, and imprisoned hundreds of immigrants and American citizens without reason or due process. Some have been sent to maximum-security prisons at the ends of the Earth. Others have simply disappeared. Children have been zip-tied and separated from their parents. 

The vampire comes at night, victimizing the defenseless, the weak-minded, and the lonely. He murders sleep. He is all-powerful and mesmerizing, bending victims to his will. He is a liar. He is a shapeshifter who changes his form at will. According to legend, the vampire can become a wolf, a rat, or a bat whenever it suits him, just as our very own Prince of Darkness changes his shape whenever it’s politically expedient. He dodges, he flips, he denies, he bullies, and he lies. He changes from man to wolf to rat—and he does it all the time. 

Yes, we are living under the reign of a would-be Prince of Darkness. While the blood they suck is metaphorical, their crimes are not. 

Trump was friends with Epstein. He befriends white supremacists. He has been looting the Treasury. He has loosed DOGE, the teenage mutant ninja turds, to terrorize the American people. He has cut humanitarian funding. He is getting ready to pillage our national parks. He is starving our children. He is dismantling our higher education system. He has been found guilty of thirty-four counts of fraud. He has been accused of sexual assault. He is physically destroying the history and traditions of this country. And this is only the tip of the iceberg.

He is not a vampire. He is something much, much worse—a monster, a devil, a beast. And we invited him in. 

Notes

1. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-implementation-timeline-of-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-act/
2. https://www.cbpp.org/research/health/health-insurance-premium-spikes-imminent-as-tax-credit-enhancements-set-to-expire#:~:text=and%20Elizabeth%20Zhang-,Health%20Insurance%20Premium%20Spikes%20Imminent%20as%20Tax%20Credit%20Enhancements%20Set,will%20be%20underway%20November%201.
3. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146