Economist Paul Krugman details key ingredient that makes Trump’s MAGA 'worse' than France’s far-right

02 July 2024

Centrist French President Emmanuel Macron suffered a major disappointment when, on Sunday, June 30, his foes in the far-right National Rally (formerly the National Front) won roughly 33 percent of the vote in Round 1 of France's parliamentary elections. A second round of voting is set for July 7.

Many European journalists have been sounding the alarm about France's election results, warning that the National Rally — led by the controversial Marine Le Pen and once led by her late father, Jean-Marie Le Pen — has a long history of racism and antisemitism.

But liberal economic Paul Krugman, in his July 1 column for the New York Times, argues that former President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement are "worse" and more dangerous than Marine Le Pen and France's National Rally (or Rassemblement National, RN for short, in French).

"Let me be a typical American and explore what events in France may portend for the United States," Krugman writes. "The first thing to say is that the French election results probably have less to do with ideology than you may think. French voters, like voters across the wealthy world, are in a sour mood and directing their ire against the politicians currently in power, be they on the right, the left or the center."

The economist adds, "Britain, for example, will be holding its own election on Thursday, and unless the polls are way off, the Conservative Party, which has ruled the nation for 14 years, is headed for an even more crushing defeat than Macron's centrists."

Krugman lays out some reasons why Trump worries him more than France's far right.

"The contrast with Trumpism should be obvious," Krugman explains. "MAGA shares the French right's hostility to immigrants and general xenophobia. But Donald Trump, far more than Macron, really was a president of the rich, cutting taxes on corporations and the affluent while attempting unsuccessfully to slash health benefits for millions…. His economic ideas are all about making workers worse off while further enriching America's oligarchs."

Krugman continues, "So yes, the French right is bad, and its rise is alarming. But the MAGA movement is worse, because it combines the European right's ugliness with stunning hypocrisy and contempt for its supporters."

Paul Krugman's full New York Times column is available at this link (subscription required).

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