Economist Paul Krugman at FIDES 2023 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on September 25, 2023 (A.PAES/Shutterstock.com)
President Donald Trump is angrily lashing out at Democrats for their heavy focus on inflation, insisting that "affordability" is a Democratic "hoax." Trump is also saying that voters should be thanking him because of how much he has improved the economy.
But liberal economist Paul Krugman, in a Substack column posted on December 10, argues that Trump has a losing message on the economy.
"Trump and his minions seem to have come around to admitting that Americans are, in fact, unhappy with the state of the economy," Krugman writes. "But if the economy is A+++++, why don't people see it? The problem can't possibly lie with him — so it must lie with you. 'The American people don't know how good they have it'…. Anyway, I may not be a political strategist, but I don't think 'You're all a bunch of ingrates' is a winning message. It was, however, really the only message Trump could deliver, given his utter lack of empathy or humility."
Krugman adds, "At this point, I could bombard you with a lot of data showing that the economy is not, in fact, A+++++. But it isn't a disaster area, at least not yet. So why are Americans feeling so down? The main culprit is Trump himself."
The economist and former New York Times columnist notes that Trump aggressively campaigned on lowering prices in 2024 — only to chastise voters for being worried about inflation now.
"First, during the 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to bring consumer prices way down beginning on 'Day 1,'" Krugman writes. "We're now 11 months in, prices are still rising, and voters who believed him feel, with reason, that they were lied to…. Second, Trump would be in much better political shape right now if he had basically continued (former President Joe) Biden's policies, with only a few cosmetic changes…. Instead, he brought chaos: Massive and massively unpopular tariffs, DOGE disruptions, masked ICE agents grabbing people off the street, saber-rattling and war crimes in the Caribbean."
Krugman continues, "Many swing voters, I believe, supported Trump out of nostalgia for the relative calm that prevailed before COVID struck. They didn't think they were voting for nonstop political PTSD. And there's more to come. Health insurance costs are about to spike, because Republicans refuse to extend Biden-era subsidies."
Paul Krugman's full Substack column is available at this link.
