Paul Krugman: 'Trump’s biggest con' of all

Economist Paul Krugman argues in a Monday, October 28 New York Times column that Donald Trump's "biggest, potentially most consequential con has been political: portraying himself as a different kind of Republican, an ally of working Americans."

Krugman submits that "Americans correctly remember Trump’s prepandemic economy as an era of strong job growth and rising wages — largely, I’d argue, because Republicans in Congress opened the fiscal spigots after austerity during the Obama years slowed recovery from the 2008 financial crisis."

However, "Many also implicitly discount or memory-hole the high unemployment of Trump’s final year in office. And they’re still frustrated about higher prices, the consequence of the inflation surge of 2021-22 — even though this surge was a global pandemic phenomenon, and wages adjusted for inflation are now higher than they were right before the Covid-19 pandemic."

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The Nobel laureate emphasized, "What relatively few people realize, I believe, is that if he wins next week, Trump’s anti-worker agenda will be much broader than anything he managed to do in 2017-21."

Noting that during his years as a business mogul, Krugman recalls that Trump "left behind a trail of investors who lost money in failed ventures even as he profited, students who paid thousands for worthless courses, unpaid contractors and more."

Additionally, "Even amid his current presidential campaign he has been hawking overpriced gold sneakers and Trump Bibles printed in China," Krugman continues.

The longtime economist emphasizes:

[Trump's] 2017 tax cut strongly favored high-income Americans. Now he wants to make that tax cut, many of whose provisions will expire in 2025, permanent. He has also floated the idea of a further large cut in corporate taxes (much of which could, by the way, ultimately benefit foreign investors).

As president, Trump tried to push through deep cuts in Medicaid, although he didn’t succeed. And while he says that he won’t cut Social Security and Medicare, his policy proposals would undermine these programs’ financial foundations.

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"So, no, Trump isn’t a friend to working-class Americans; quite the opposite," Krugman concludes.

Krugman's full column is available at this link (subscription required).