In the old days, they called it a window. A window into the heart of a man. If a man uses such words while he kills, you know what is inside him. You know if he killed because he was afraid or if he killed because he hated. Today, that window has widened to reveal the soul of an entire administration. From the blood-stained streets of Minneapolis to the gates of the White House, we are witnessing a “trickle-down” of disparagement—a culture where women are viewed as political props, subordinate assets, or targets of dehumanizing rage.

On November 26, 2025, the window opened in Washington, D.C., when 20-year-old National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom was shot and killed while on duty. The “short, hard words” from the top followed before her body was even cold. Rather than mourning a young woman who served her country, the administration instantly converted her tragedy into a tactical weapon, using her death to justify a sweeping immigration crackdown and suspend asylum for thousands. When a woman’s life is treated as a catalyst for a pre-existing agenda rather than a human loss, the window reveals a heart that views women as tools for the state, not citizens to be cherished.

This disregard is a reflection of a top-down philosophy. The administration’s history is defined by a language of devaluation—a mentality where women are not peers, but assets to be managed, moved on, or discussed in terms of their utility. From the public reduction of the First Lady to her material proximity to the persistent, dark shadow of the Jeffrey Epstein associations, the rhetoric remains consistent. It is a mentality that views the female identity as a boundary to be policed rather than a life to be respected.

The mentality of a leader sets the moral frequency for the foot soldier. On January 7, 2026, this manifested in Minneapolis during the shooting of Renee Nicole Good, an unarmed poet and mother. While federal agents claimed she “weaponized her vehicle,” video footage showed a woman trying to navigate a one-way street before being met with lethal force from ICE agent Jonathan Ross. In the aftermath, Vice President JD Vance used “short, hard words” to dismiss her death as a “tragedy of her own making,” a direct trickle-down effect where when the top disparages, the street dehumanizes. Reports of gendered slurs during these encounters are the “window” opening again, confirming the violence was born of a belief that the victim was “lesser than.”

If a man uses such words while he kills, you know what is inside him. If an administration uses such words while it governs—weaponizing the death of a Sarah Beckstrom or dismissing the killing of a Renee Nicole Good—we know what is inside the state. The window is open. We see a heart that no longer values the lives it is sworn to protect, viewing women instead through a lens of utility, suspicion, and hardened contempt.