Brendan McDermid/Reuters
With the economy souring over the course of President Donald Trump’s second term, Kevin Hassett, his director of the National Economic Council has been frantic to lay the blame anywhere but the White House. Then earlier this week, he said something so absurd that Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman called it outright “stupid.”
According to Krugman, “On Fox News, Hassett was, as usual, boasting about how great the economy is, when he was asked why Americans aren’t feeling it — why the long-running Michigan index of consumer sentiment has hit its lowest level ever. He responded by claiming that the index ‘is being driven by Democrats who have Trump derangement syndrome.’”
This prompted Krugman to note sarcastically, “Yes indeed … someone is deranged here.”
Accusations of “Trump derangement syndrome” have long been used by the president and his allies to sidestep substantive criticism, the suggestion being that all is well, his critics are just crazy. But as Krugman notes, while politics do impact public perceptions, the White House can’t make that case here, as all Americans but Trump’s most diehard loyalists agree that the economy is broken.
As Krugman explains, “The Michigan survey tracks respondents by party, and politics clearly does affect economic perceptions. Democrats were much more positive about the economy under Biden than Republicans; they became much less positive, while Republicans became much more positive, when the White House changed hands. At this point, however, independents’ views of the economy are similar to those of Democrats. Republican optimism, not Democratic pessimism, is out of line with the views of most Americans.”
What’s more, there is a stark divide on economic perceptions within the Republican voting block.
“YouGov’s surveys subdivide Republicans into those who do and those who don’t support MAGA — and the economic views of these two groups are very different,” says Krugman. “A remarkable 65 percent of non-MAGA Republicans say that the economy is getting worse, while only 11 percent say that it is getting better.”
The reality is clear. Apart from MAGA Republicans, few Americans see the economy getting better, while the vast majority say it’s getting worse. As Krugman notes, “Non-MAGA Republicans are much more similar in their views to independents, and even to Democrats, than they are to MAGA.”
Based on numbers like these, Krugman says the White House should face the fact that the administration has failed: “The great majority of Americans — essentially everyone who isn’t a total Trump loyalist — believes that the economy is getting worse.” Furthermore, writes Krugman, “There are good reasons for that negativity. Inflation is way up as a result of Trump’s tariffs and his Iran war. Because of this surge in prices, real personal income has declined sharply.”
But as with Iran, Trump never admits failure even if it’s obvious to everyone else. According to Krugman, the president and his officials “bring the same mindset to economic sentiment. If the public hates Trump’s economy, the problem must be with the politically deranged public, not with Trump.”
Hassett’s attempts to dance around the economic truth have become so painfully obvious that even Fox News — which normally goes to great pains to avoid criticizing Trump — has pointed out his nonsense. Recently, while trying to blame the Biden administration for high gas prices, Fox host Bill Hemmer wasn’t having it, saying, “That was then, and this is now.” During another appearance, after Hassett falsely claimed that prices were going down with a big smile on his face, Fox host Stuart Verney noted, “While you were talking we had a graphic on the screen that shows all kinds of items that have gone up very significantly. I don't think you've won the war on inflation at this point.”
This is exactly the type of economic reality that Krugman says the White House is desperate to ignore. But voters aren’t buying it.
“The 19 percent of Americans who support MAGA, many of whom literally believe that Trump was sent by God, say that the economy is good. The other 81 percent of Americans say that it’s very bad. Which group is more likely to have economic perceptions that are warped by politics?” Krugman concludes. “Seriously, who’s deranged here?”