Stroke survivors sometimes use wearable robotic devices called “medical rehabilitation exoskeletons.” They are similar in concept and design to leg braces people with polio used to wear many years ago. Exoskeletons are used to assist the patient by realigning their movements, impaired due to one-sided weakness called hemiparesis. This is due to partial paralysis from a “cerebrovascular accident” (CVA), commonly referred to as a stroke. So did Trump have a CVA and is he wearing a medical exoskeleton to compensate? Photographs suggesting as much have circulated on the internet. They show peculiar bulges and bunching in Trump’s trousers near the knee, where an exoskeleton cuff could reside. The White House denies that Trump has had a CVA, which means we have no reliable information either way. Trump defenders suggest the bunching in the leg is due to poorly-tailored suits, a strange thing for a billionaire to have. But then, Trump is notoriously cheap and his suits are notoriously baggy and he is notoriously strange. Also, Trump frequently slaps or taps his right thigh before descending stairs. Some say that the taps are to engage the exoskeleton. But physically slapping or tapping the side of the leg is not a recognised control method for any known major medical devices. Another clue of a possible stroke is found in photographs of Trump showing facial asymmetry, where Trump’s face appears to be sagging on one side. But that could be due to badly-timed photographs. The short answer is we don’t know if Trump has had a stroke or not. That isn’t the relevant question anyway. The relevant question is, why do we have to ask? Why isn’t the true state of the health of the president of the United States known to everyone, backed up by provable metrics? The answer is that Americans now live in a nation where their government holds them, their right to know, their financial struggles, their civil rights, their fears and their wishes — in utter and imperious contempt. Americans are talked down to, lied to, gaslighted, threatened and sometimes murdered by their own government. And they are called “traitors” or “terrorists” or “communists” or “haters” if they don’t love every minute of it. Americans are patronised daily by smug, millionaire Republican politicians who have never set foot in a grocery store and have no idea what it’s like to struggle financially. These supercilious trustfund babies give financial advice to poor people from a rich person’s perspective. If there had been a suspicion that Joe Biden had been wearing an exoskeleton, the press would have screamed at him to pull up his trousers to the knee. It would have been world news until he complied. By the way, the word “exoskeleton” is familiar to some of our sisters and brothers who happen to be entomologists. They would have recognised the word immediately. To an entomologist an exoskeleton is a hard outer covering that supports, shapes and protects insects. It is an apt metaphor. The current American MAGA government is insectile in its indifference to the pain of the average American. They are a swarm of feeders who, unlike actual insects, offer no benefit in return. They wear their indifference like an insectile exoskeleton.