Definition of populist
2 : a believer in the rights, wisdom, or virtues of the common people ( https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/populist )
Definition of wonk
: a person preoccupied with arcane details or procedures in a specialized field; broadly : nerd ( https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wonkish )
Now that we have that cleared up, consider that the Dems did not make a place in their tent for the disaffected deplorables.
45, not a wonk, espouses the rights and extols the virtues and wisdom of the common people. He doesnm't think they are deplorable.
He resonates ACROSS the country, not just in population dense urban areas: CLICK and then click COUNTIES on left of page https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/president
Seems a populist map to me.
Mr. Krugman even wrote about Trump attracting Southern Democrats (read "southern whites who believe in Jeffersonian Democracy;" the party of Lincoln) in 2015: https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/trump-in-a-box/
If he got the populist vote, ain't he a populist, Mr. Krugman?
5
well written
3
Trump isn't a populist. He is a fascist manque. And it is time he is recognized as such.
This dangerous, immoral, lying man needs to be stopped through voting power. All those who sat is out because they did not like Hillary, all those who wrote in some silly protest vote, and all those who wasted precious voting power on candidates like Jill Stein, are as responsible for the Trump presidency as his racist, true believing base and the feckless Republicans who continue to support him either to save their own political skins or advance an outdated conservative agenda. Add redistricting and voter caging to the list, and Trump's ascendancy to the presidency isn't hard to understand.
23
NY Times should do research and print how much money Trump has really given to charity, that may reveal his true character.
13
“I don’t know the answer” Professor Krugman, I think you do! Trump has Republican, working class, evangelical Christian, and ultra-white nationalist racist support, look at the faces of the Americans at the Trump rallies, because Trump HATES the same people they do and they celebrate their hatred with and through Trump.
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov: (1920 -1992)
35
"Trump is a pathological liar, the most dishonest man ever to hold high office in America."
I am waiting for the Repubs to do something about this. I am waiting for the Repubs to do something about this. I am waiting for the Repubs to do something about this.
23
If you can't see Trump by now, its you. If you are so easily fooled, its you. Is Trump really tricking people? Its just a shared hate, it will not make sense to the sane.
7
Maybe there are populists, and there are populist, but I ask Krugman does he think Hitler was a populist, how about Stalin or Mussolini? Do you think FDR or maybe Truman were even more fitted to be called that? I'm of the opinion one accomplishments in office does not bear consideration...that is after the fact. Trump arrived on the wave of discontented citizens, a very populist thought. We don't talk much about what makes up that, but we should also remember Trump's predecessor was not what I would call a popular president. And it helped Trump to win.
4
To the working classes Trump is a rabble rouser.
To the monied classes Trump is a corporatist per Mussolini, "“Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.”
Money always talks and Big Money talks loudest.
12
I was confused for a moment, I thought your headline read "Stop Calling Trump a Profitist".
Somewhere between a prophet, a populist and a profiteer.
2
He should be called the Anti-Populist. He needs a new name.
4
Mueller may prove that Trump conspired with Russia as well
as other US citizens to fix the election.
Pence may be involved as well.
Cleaning up the election processes is really what NYTimes
journalists should be focused on; not surmises about 'polulism' ….this is ridiculous in light of the fact that
Russia may be able to not only fix our elections; but shut down our electrical grids....manipulate trading on the NY
Stock Exchange....the cyber attacks are treacherous...write
about what matters...!!!!
7
This post risks contributing to the argument about how well an oddly shaped peg fits into an indeterminately-shaped hole.
That said, Trump appeals to his base on matters of identity more than matters of economy.
Some of them like the whiff of white supremacy. Others like the verbal belligerence. Many, perhaps almost all, see him as sharing their antipathy for certain societal changes, prominently, anything that smacks of affirmative action, LGBTQ acceptance, political correctness, rights of immigrants etc. They have come to associate these progressive-sounding causes with environmental protection and just about any kind of government regulation.
The base is convinced, probably rightly so, that Trump actually holds some or all of these views.
It was matters of identity that kept some voters from voting for Clinton even though they didn't like Trump. People say that they just couldn't stand the idea of voting for her. The underlying reasons they are likely to list simply don't comport with the facts.
Is this "populism"? It really doesn't matter. He speaks to his base, about 35% of the public. And, the shared aspects of identity seem to effectively eliminate use of reason, acknowledgement of facts and, in some cases, even adherence to self-interest.
3
I hope lazy journalists read Paul Krugman and stop referring to Trump as a populist, a leader who works for the welfare of the people in general. Bernie Sanders is a populist in that sense, as is Elizabeth Warren. I argue with working-class Trump supporters on this point in our "flyover" state, but they shed facts as though they are coated in Trump's anti-fact Teflon, even as their economic situation and rights erode under the Trump regime. They live by wages and earned income, not stock dividends, but think it's great they just got a measly twenty dollar tax cut under Trumps tax reform. Their willful blindness is caused by the extreme anger that flared and smoldered as politicians of both parties ignored the economic devastation of the Rust Belt, the dreams not only deferred, but canceled. Republicans taught them to blame a single mother getting a 300$ welfare check or an immigrant that their $60,000 a year job disappeared in the mine or the factory. Now they are lucky to work for Walmart and hugely resent that the mid-20th century middle class life was yanked out from under them. I believe it is the economy, stupid, so much so that any Democratic presidential candidate needs to "feel their pain" in detail instead of calling them deplorable. Why should we bother to truly reach out to people who seem stubbornly uneducable? Because they could reelect Trump! I am old enough to remember deceased grandparents who worshiped FDR in what is now Trump country.
5
You helped reinforce the idea that there are three options: Comrade Trump, ALEC and the Democrats who can't quite decide whether to be liberal or not.
ALEC wants to get ride of the middle class by keeping them poor.
Comrade Trump wants to make the rich richer and basically ignore the poor.
The Democrats can't get well organized now that ALEC can stop them in any way but would like universal healthcare.
2
"Trump is about as populist as he is godly — that is, not at all."
Amen to that!
9
Right Dr. Krugman, let's call a demagogue a demagogue, not a "populist." Just because fascists toss around a few catch phrases from the labor or civil rights movements along with their anti-labor, anti-civil rights and anti-woman policies doesn't make them populists. It makes them demagogues. During the primaries Trump's fellow Republicans called him a liar, a fraud, and a con man. And they were right.
18
As Dr. Krugman explained Trump is clearly not a populist. But what is a better label then?
Given the fanatical support he receives even while he enacts policies that clearly harm those same supporters, the only possible label may be, as others have a eluded to, "cult leader".
Just as a religious cult leader persuades his followers to give up much of their personal property, Trump is completely successful enacting policies harmful to his supporters.
His most ardent cult followers forgive all including the despicable public fawning over Putin, his obvious lying, the lousy company he keeps, extramarital affairs and his misogyny.
6
You're right. Trump is not a populist, he is a cult leader. He has more in common with Jim Jones could "shoot someone on Fifth Avenue " and not alienate his supporters. I have talked to some of them, and there is no evidence that will sway their undying support of their dear leader. The best one can do is make a connection on a human level, come out as democrat or liberal and hope they don't shoot you.
7
I have some experience with the working classes. I was a construction worker for a decade, not a high paid craftsman, a nail-pounder who went from job to job and was often unemployed.
Some things you have to understand about American workers is their fierce pride. OSHA and unemployment compensation, food stamps, and healthcare are insults. They accept them grudgingly. They don't want to be kept safe by regulations, they pride themselves on their wits and quick reflexes. Regulations are an insult. If they can't win and keep a job, they are losers. Accepting unemployment is rubbing salt in the wound. Health comes from strength, not doctors. Healthcare is for weaklings.
Do I agree with this? No. Is it nonsense? Of course.
But everyone has a streak of foolishness and Trump's populist base treasures this one. Can they change? Some will, but many won't. Trump has the low cunning to tap into these profoundly self-destructive but cherished beliefs, while running roughshod over the real interests of his believers.
As long as he feeds their suicidal pride, they will stick with him.
157
Today's headlines in the NYT
1.Workers Hardest Hit by Recession Are Joining in Recovery
2. Manufacturers Increase Efforts to Woo Workers to Rural Areas
Yet the Professor writes " his administration has been relentlessly anti-worker on every front"
Krugman endorsed NAFTA, passed over the objection of industrial Unions.
Now, that was anti-worker
5
Populism is a term of art, and Paul Krugman is on target in spotting its misuse. ,This is not the first time I have personally seen and reported similar verbal political gymnastics as a correspondent in many countries for 40 years. But I would also suggest to former colleagues that the press avoid throwing around false labels of "left wing"for the emerging Democratic domestic program of health care, free public college, and employment and wage security.
When that notorious leftie, Harry Truman, ordered me into combat in Korea to support the world order he was creating, he was also fighting for universal health care. Public college was free or very cheap (even my Ivy League annual tuition was $600). The Democrats upheld unions and fair wages. A left-wing program? The left-right division dates from the semi-circular shape of the French National Assembly in the 19th Century, when ideologies shifted, and simultaneously the dividing line with them.
Political reporters should work to avoid tired labels, popular cliches, and dead English. I would suggest, probably along with Paul Krugman, a few days for reporters and editors reading and absorbing George Orwell's classic essay on "Politics and the English Language."
11
A term can be useful or not. "Populism" means very different things to different people. Thus, if you think that a "populist" is a person that channels the will of the people without intermediaries like politicians or the "deep state", then the president is a populist. Berlusconi would be another. Unfortunately, as described in some comments, the populist leader may as much shape the will of the people as channeling it. Thus, it should come to no surprise that both the perceived will of and by the populist base is unclear and fuzzy, and the leader might not have any fixed ideology, either. "Populism" is often meant pejoratively, associated with con-artistry and snake oil selling. My hunch is, that's exactly what the media mean, and in that they are spot on.
1
Dr. Krugman,
Populism goes hand in hand with corporatism, and as was the case in Germany, fascism. Being clear about ones usage is a general failure of the press. For example, Republicans are not conservatives in any meaningful sense of the word (as in Burkean conservatism). Rather they are reactionaries who wish to recreate a prior state of affairs (pre-New Deal and pre 1960's cultural changes). One could teach a semester course on the misuse of language and how that misuse prevents a clear, meaningful analysis.
Best wishes,
Christopher Mulvaney, Ph.D.
11
@Chris Mulvaney, Ph,D,
German fascism was "populist"? You have demonstrated the total meaninglessness of the word.
I'd recommend reading some American history. Like Lawrence Goodwyn's The Populist Moment. The U.S. invented Populism, as a philosophy and a party. We should resist the term's corruption.
3
I just want to hear him stop being called president.
37
Who cares what you call him? To me, the only meaningful descriptor would be ex-president.
25
Hillary said it best when she referred to Trump supporters as deplorable.Obviously, not all trump supporters are deplorable.What Krugman does not realize is the blue collar workers that would take a bullet for Trump is not because they love Trump , more likely, it's because to them he is the lesser of two evils.They would rather vote for the Devil, then vote for a Party that is comprised of Jews, Black, Hispanics,& Homosexuals, who want to take away their guns.It has nothing to do with populism, & everything to do with bigotry.
22
Totally agree. Trump may have parroted some working class utterances, but he mainly engages in hate mongering and dog-whistle racism in a classically fascist manner. Interestingly, even the economic phenomena he cites as contributing to the demise of big manufacturing and steel in the rust belt are ships that sailed in the 70's, caused by economic pressures that would still mitigate attempts at massive resurrection. That said, everything he does hurts the United States in the same way Putin would recommend, and everything the Republicans manage to do is to the benefit of the monied corporate elite; the class that has money making money... not the people working for a living.
9
Indubitably.
Vote in every election.
Every.
Election.
6
Au contraire, Msr Krugman,
A populist definition: a member or adherent of a political party seeking to represent the interests of ordinary people.
How many Trump rallies are in wine bars and country clubs? Hint: none. They are typically in arenas in flyover states with a bunch of blue collar diehards. Populist is a good way to describe his appeal.
That a NY billionaire can appeal to such people shows really how far the Democratic party has drifted from their former working class base of support.
So, where is the economic apocalypse you so famously predicted? The horror of this Presidency (at least to the liberal elite) is that he is actually being successful. Unemployment at 3.9% (4.8 under Obama), 156M people employed (152M under Obama), 39.3M food stamp recipients (42.9M under Obama), black, Hispanic, women unemployment at historic lows, etc. etc. etc. At what point do you dust off the Nobel and admit, yes, at least some of Trump's policies may actually be working?
So, don't get the racist comments either. What is racist about wanting to control illegal immigration? What is racist about trying to improve the lives of all Americans regardless of their race (as shown in the unemployment numbers). When liberals are out of coherent arguments, they yell RACIST in a desperate attempt to distract from their own failings and put their opponents on the defensive.
Try throttling up from the liberal bubble to see what is actually working with this administration.
9
@Hillary Trump is just two years into his administration. He is still benefiting from 8 years of Obama's policies that pulled the economy out of the last Republican-induced crash. Trump's approach may generate a rapid bubble before it stops steady, positive growth in its tracks. Economic reality lags behind economic policy. America is just beginning to feel the effects of his trade wars, just to name one aspect of Trump genius.
11
@Ghost Dansing
"America is just beginning to feel the effects of his trade wars", So does "Economic reality lags behind economic policy" only if no trade war is involved? But then "two years into his administration. He is still benefiting from 8 years of Obama's policies that pulled the economy out of the last Republican-induced crash" Aside from feeling the effects of a trade war and still benefiting from Obama'a policies, AT THE SAME TIME, what happened to "Economic reality lags behind economic policy" when Bush took office? I guess "Economic reality lags behind economic policy" ONLY when Democrat has left office? But that doesn't work either because the economy also went into a recession 6-8 months before Bush took office. So now we have "Economic reality lags behind economic policy" only when no trade war is involved, and if a Democrat is leaving office, but only then if the economy is good. If the economy is bad, then economic reality fortels economic policy but only if a Republican is taking office. If two Democrats ever get elected in succession all bets are off and this rule will need to be revised. It still doesn't explain how we are feeling effects from two different policies at the same time, but we can just call that an anomaly.
Thanks for simplifying how economic policy works so us uneducated deplorables can understand it.
1
Right and the massive debt will subjugate future generations.
4
It's worth looking up the definition of populism, which is support for the concerns of ordinary people. Donald Trump has appealed to Racism, Xenophobia, Bigotry and general raging resentment. Those "concerns", as hard as it might be to accept, appeal to at least a third of America, to one degree or another, and his polling is steady at 40-42%. Krugman is wrong. Trump is acting out his support for those very concerns and his ordinary people are not interested in why there is no rational reason to support tariffs or child separations. Those types of actions show support for their deepest concerns, which are Racism, Xenophobia, Bigotry and raging resentment.
7
Not to be picky, but I once worked briefly in a job requiring a hard hat, and I observed how quickly real hard hats get dirty, scratched, full of stickers, etc. And when I would watch a movie or TV show with characters who were supposed to be construction workers or the like, I always found it amusing how spotless the hard hats were; I could picture the costume person purchasing them that morning at the industrial supply store.
So check out the hard hats and the coveralls on the "workers" behind the President in this photo--not a speck of dirt on them. I'm sure there are lots of hard-working employees at this steel mill, but can I be forgiven for being curious as to whether that's who these people are?
20
I think that of all Trump's whoppers, the one that I enjoyed the most was when he told an adoring crowd he was a real working stiff, just like them, because of the six weeks he spent on one of his dad's construction sites, "pouring dry-wall."
18
@Jerry S. Good observation. If you look closer at the guys in the front row their hard hats have written "VISITOR" on them...
2
The press calls Trump "populist" as a code-word for "fascist", because calling him fascist is likely to lose it advertising revenue, and maybe to get it sued.
6
The Democrats need to become the party of workers, protecting their jobs, their unions, their income, their working conditions, their health care, their ability to take care of their families and to send their kids to school. Otherwise we leave this field to be claimed (falsely) by Trump.
13
Peter, that's right, and a good starting point on this journey is for Democrats to finally face the fact that a lesson in how NOT to do this was the conduct of the 2016 election. As much of a con man as President Trump was, he at least addressed these issues, even with phony solutions. In the meantime, the Democrats were so obsessed with pointing out how awful Trump was--as though we couldn't figure that out on our own--that they said almost nothing about workers and the disaffected middle class, who were the conned by Trump as they became the swing vote in his narrow victory.
Hey, this time let's get our act together and tell our workers how we're going to work with them to really, this time, make America great again.
5
And the Times' fixation on the email server and not her policy ideas didn't help.
3
In Europe as well as in the States, the word "populist" has grown to mean extreme right wing nativism. "Populists" sneer at education and the free exchange of ideas. Here in the States, this includes antagonism to science and the assertion of very questionable religious beliefs to justify suppression of the general population. Its primary policy is anti-immigration and nationalist jingoism. This feeds on the fallacy that immigrants take jobs away from native citizens and engage in culture wars designed to import a foreign culture to undermine the established culture of a country.
It is fascistic in tone, attempting to create a corporate/government state. If "populists" as now defined could get away with abolishing the middle and working classes and establishing slavery, they would.
Our "populists" today are anything but populist.
8
If Colbert is going to waste your brilliance and my time, don’t go there.
Trump is a Trumpist. And he is a clown. How does anyone take this man seriously? He cares for his wealth and name, nothing else. The name needs to go down. That is how we bring him down. And it will. It has. Here in NYC, more and more Trump signs are being removed. I can understand why the workers have supported him---they really don't know any better. And with all of the distractions---so many distractions, how is anyone to focus on merely one of his many many loathsome qualities?
8
As a pathological liar Trump is unfit for any job, even self-employent. It's not that he has brought out the worst in Americans; rather it's that he has brought out the worst Americans.
The President he is most like is President Jefferson Davis of the Confederate States of America.
The worst is yet to come. The cult of Trump will take a few generations to die out. The historical lesson to be learned is that the human brain is a fragile thing.
10
One of the unfortunate consequences of city life is exposure to con artists. We learn early, often the hard way, to recognize and avoid them.
Con artists, like dictators, have learned that if you can get a person to believe one lie, you can get him/her to believe increasingly absurd lies. They also understand Hitler's philosophy on lying: big lies are more likely to be believed than small lies.
One consequence of cognitive dissonance is that the more absurd the lie, the more difficult it is to overcome belief in it.
Trump is a master of the big lie, and his followers have bought into his lies to the point where those lies have become part of their identity. Just like any cult.
11
The same man who squeezed dozens of small contractors and avoided paying them even cents on the dollar by declaring bankruptcy on multiple occasions, is the same man who now poses as a champion of working families? As before, he may provide jobs but good luck getting paid!
9
Paul Krugman is on a better footing than when he praised the America Empire (as if it was great before Trump) and he is quite right that the conman in chief is not helping workers. But it seems that the average income of Trump voters was higher than that of the voters of his rival. The plutocrats did not all vote for the Goldman Sachs-friendly candidate, many stuck with one of their own and he delivered (the tax reform putting all this money in their pockets). Mueller cannot stop plutocracy but American voters can (if some of them are not barred from voting, especially African American voters purged from voter rolls).
2
No populist -- just a demagogue leading a political cult.
10
It's more complicated than just people sharing his racism, who before were unable to give voice to it.
Racism can be maximized or minimized. There are degrees. People become more racist due to economic hardship and competition.
Think of the decades the US made progress against racism when our elected govt worked better for the average citizen's benefit and not for big campaign donors. Our middle & working class was once the world's strongest. Then the civil rights movement could move forward.
This is the contrast that krugman should use to show the change, where now racism more easily flares up. Thus we see an increase of police killings of black people, as a symptom.
Now the US ranks behind many other democracies in citizen financial security and worse poverty rates. See the recent new UN report on this, and the Gini Index of intl equality by country.
Instead of being ignored, this is what should be in NYT columns, not just more of-- isn't Trump awful, over and over.
Trump has used latent racism as a tool, amplifying resentments made worse by economic hardship.
America ranks behind other capitalist democracies in economic inequality. Corporate donors dominate our policy making. Connection, PK?
This is what a Nobel winner in economics might devote his columns to, so the voting public could become more informed, not just more outraged and angry.
3
This column mentions "white nationalism," precisely once, in its second paragraph, and is otherwise entirely an attack on Trump's economic "plans," and their meaning for American workers.
It might be helpful to read a bit further.
4
As usual, Krugman validates his Nobel Prize with insight & courage. Speaking truth to a dishonest & hostile autocrat is becoming increasingly dangerous. We can only hope that real patriots will not be cowed, as is obviously Mr. Trump's intent.
Thank you for your brave advocacy for American democracy.
11
"Why would he do all the things he’s doing to hurt the very people who gave him the White House?" You know the answer to this question perfectly well. He's doing this because he's like every other Republican before him (and many Democrats too): His real interest is serving the wealthy. His supporters either don't get this, or simply choose to ignore this because they are too preoccupied with distractions like immigration, abortion, guns and their perceived loss of status relative to people of color. But Trump is different from his predecessors in one way: he's actually giving more than just lip service to these distractions, and that makes him wildly popular with his base. But, he's really a typical Republican at his core.
6
I think the key point of this article is that he really does despise the lower middle class of his base. He's a glad handing, elbow rubber, country club, male and white supremacist kind of guy who was never really excepted by the business and political elite (with good reason). So he's learned how to scam the out-of-works, racists, working poor, and haters to get back at the world. When has any of his enterprises done anything for anyone but himself? Ask the many investors, employees and contractors. The hope is that by November the screaming cultists are the only ones left to vote for tumpsters.
4
You are correct Paul, Trump's economic policies, at least the domestic ones, flow from the Republican Right's playbook going back to the 1970's and before that to Von Hayek and Von Mises and the Mt. Pelerin Society founded in Switzerland on April 1, 1947.
But you and the economics profession bear more than a small share of the responsibility for this terrible "devolution," never having put forth Karl Polanyi's book "The Great Transformation" as the social democratic answer to Von Hayek's "Road to Serfdom," both published in 1944.
Some of us on the economic left were sounding the alarm over the Republican Right's intensifying ideology, and remember Polanyi writing that the founders of the "market society" - the classical economists, held their view with near religious fanaticism.
And your fellow columnist Thomas Friedman has been notorious with his praise and cultivation of the entrepreneurial powerful, and his denigration of labor and the working class as Luddites and yes, even "roadkill."
Here it is laid out in an essay I wrote in 2011, published in Tikkun magazine. https://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/when-market-man-consigns-the-common-man-t....
The Democratic Party played the AFL-CIO for suckers under Carter, Clinton and Obama. Why Trumka and his predecessors put up with it and couldn't even deliver an angry denunciation of the Dems drift to the right - not even on their own Labor Days, speaks volumes as to how we got to the monster Trump.
2
Not that it comes up much, but myself, I find it unwise to lecture leftish Nobel-winning econ profs on how they dunno nothin' about one of the classic discussions in their field.
Especially given Krugman's career, critiques of mainstream economics, and writings here--no matter how much one wants to push the Same Old Guff about "neo-liberals."
2
@Robert
Yes, Robert, it must seem that way to you; "how dare I." I must remember: daring is reserved for entrepreneurs, it can no longer exist in the realm of ideas, they're all settled in economics right?
However, I've never seen Krugman discuss Polanyi, even after he has "broken into" the NY Review of Books and the New Yorker, after so many decades of being ignored.
Krugman, of course, doesn't have to agree with him, and I'm sure he doesn't, but an acknowledgement of Polanyi's work and existence would assure some of us that he has at least considered what the man had to say.
Nor have I seen Krugman give serious attention to the major works pouring out of Yanis Varoufakis over the past five years or so.
For me at least, Varoufakis is the leading public man in the West right now, and is a deeper thinker than Krugman, although they would share quite a few values, but not all. Varoufakis' long letter, short book on economics written for his dear 14 year old daughter is going to be a classic some day, perhaps up there with Keynes' "Consequences of the Peace."
I still get a kick out of watching Obama rip Trump apart at the Correspondents’ Dinner and wish that he had a late night slot on cable to continue demolishing him.
Mueller’s efforts aside, the best way -- maybe the only way -- of getting rid of Trump is ridiculing him into a blowup or resignation and -- for my money -- Obama has the comedy chops to do it.
Watching The Hero Of The Far Right Get Laughed Out Of Town would be a tonic for the nation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8TwRmX6zs4
11
Corporatism is a major ingredient of fascism. Many Americans are not willing to use the word fascism to describe the current affairs of this White House, Populism is just a way to avoid this unpleasant reality.
3
Trump is a populist like Alfonse Capone was a law abiding tax payer.
14
Finally! Someone is trying to put the record straight! Trump is not a populist! He cares nothing about the "ordinary people" other than how he can whip them into a froth against black or brown people and the media. I think the terms "racist, Fascist, authoritarian, illiterate, pathological liar, sociopath" are far more accurate descriptors. We need someone who every time Trump vomits up one of his numerous lies will get on prime time and counteract the Trump lie with factual truth. Unfortunately, Trump supporters do not watch CNN, MSNBC or read NYT or Washington Post. We should have digital billboards posted at the side of the road with "Trump lie of the day" and then post the truth right beside it.
5
For a man who made his surname a Brand for fake opulence modeled on the tastes of pre-guillotine French royalty (Trompe L'oeil and faux surfaces), a better label would be Faux Populist, Americanized as "Fopulist".
11
How about we just remove the so-called president from office?
8
Agreed Paul. But who will listen outside of those who already agree?
6
Agreed. I don't know how any populist could be referred to as such with only the support of about 1/3 of the electorate.
3
This is all part of today's short attention span theater and need to put everyone and everything in a neat little box that fits into a soundbite or blurb to feed the news 24 hour cycle. If you are anti-Trump you are a "liberal". If you are pro-Trump you are a "conservative". Many Trump supporters are working class so in his appeal to them he is a "populist", even though his policies stand in stark opposition to that thought. And the majority of us Dems and Independents who hold opinions and attitudes more in the center that cut across all of these issues and take more than 2 words to pigeon hole? We are forgotten and ignored.
5
Agree completely. Well and succinctly said.
Now, can we all please be consistent and refer to the false claims made by trump as L I E S rather than "falsehoods" or "inflated claims" "non factual" or any other euphemism for LIE.
Furthermore, someone who lies constantly (more than 3,250 whoppers in 17 months... look out Burger King) is by definition a LIAR.
Therefore trump should be consistently referred to as a LIAR who is president rather than a president who happens to lie.
Since trump himself doesn't respect the Office of the Presidency (though he likes the salutes and planes and other cool presidential "stuff") I see no reason to respect the Office until trump is gone (ASAP).
Then, as before, we can respect the Office again. Oops, wait a sec, Pence is no picnic either. Hmm perhaps hold off on respect till after 2020.
5
The myriad of sleazy characters in this bottomless tabloid saga continues to unravel, add Manhattan madam Kristin Davis to the gallery and you get a central casting of unsavory types starting with him heading this whole production.
Need a shower every time I see it.
3
The mob loves him.
5
Populist? Instead of labeling him at all, I think the press should cover other progressive-political protests and movements more closely. Please turn the lights off at Trump rallies and stop reading his tweets. Pay attentions to his policy announcements to let us all know what he's suggesting currently to bring the US to medieval days where we all sweep up around the oligarchs castles. Press and journalists be loyal to us -- be populists and stop help him strut the world showing contempt for all citizens of the world. I read the climate change article -- don't we have more important things to do?
5
@dptabb Yes, and why so many article analyzing in minute detail every evolving opinion of Trump voters? Why no articles examining how Clinton voters are feeling, and how they are engaged in this November's elections?
3
In 2016, Clinton got 88% of the Black vote. The “populist” got 8%. Clinton got 65% of the Hispanic vote. The “populist” got 29%. Clinton got 65% of the Asian vote. The “populist” got 29%. But because Trump got 58% of the white vote and Clinton got 37%, Trump is a “populist” since he got the majority of the (white) people.
Race is not the only dimension either, although it is prominent and certainly a hot topic. Rural poverty is “ordinary Americans” suffering from globalization and trade and immigration policies. Urban policies is the fault of gangster culture and welfare queens. Clinton won 18-29 year olds (lazy entitled millennials who are ruining X, according to the media) by 55% to Trump’s 37%. But Trump won the 65% and older crowd (the generation that included the civil rights movement, but consequentially also the last living people to have fought and protested against civil rights segregation) 53% to 45%. Trump eked out a win on voters with a high school education or less by 51% to 45% but got creamed by postgrads 58% to 37% (oddly enough, both groups make up equal amounts of voters, about 18% of the electorate). And perhaps most importantly, Clinton won the popular vote 48% to 46%. But it’s Mister 46%, the most unpopular president in history, one of only 5 to lose the popular vote but get power anyhow, who is a “populist”
6
Does anyone say Trump was "unwittingly" or in any other way "captured by G.O.P. orthodoxy"? They would would have to be brain-dead. He was always anti-labor -- a tight-fisted cheat about his employees and contractors -- and an aspiring member of the greedy-billionaire class. (I say "aspiring" because while he's greedy in spades there's real doubt about the billionaire part.)
8
I would think that you will find a good approximation of the mood of Trump Inconditionals in:
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/valse-ou-la-chanson-du-d%C3%A9cervelage-w...
Early XXth.
IMHO, many Inconditionals feel they have been abused by the political class for so long that they mostly think of vengeance. Not of building anything.
Now, this is certainly helped by the fact that (a) in recent elections, people are being told/persuaded/preached to vote *against* a candidate rather than *for* a program; and (b) that programs offered by most federal officeholders has no relationship whatsoever with their actions in office; and (c) recent polls show that, if one sums up what voters think of both parties, the majority agrees that their voices are listened by no platform/program by their "representatives".
Does not excuse any.
Still, there are indeed swamps to be drained. Nobody cares.
Could we have a moratorium against badmouthing based on intentions rather than fact?
OK Mr Krugman, if "populist" doesn't do it, how about "demagogue"? Better?
4
Yes! Thank you! YES!
2
The average person who follows Trump has a very hard time admitting he make a mistake in voting for trump. That is why they scream when logic defeats them.
They are many of the same people who deny global warming. They remind me of the easily manipulated people that Plato described twenty hundred years ago as those living in a cave watching shadows on the wall thinking that the shadows were reality. They have been the plague of progress ever since.
8
"Populist" one who is for the ordinary people, as opposed to the elites.
Trump's biggest lie of all.
If you want to read what Trump actually means, just look for the opposite of what he says.
Works every time.
5
I say the 100,000,000 people and growing that support his vision makes him a populist.
3
@Keith,
I doubt that 100 million people support his anti-labor, anti-working class "vision."
They might support his bigotry.
For the rest of it, they're just suckers.
4
Ah, I think it's the press that keeps using the term, "populist."
3
We Californians are fortunate that a ban on junk insurance is about to take place. SB-910, by Sen. Ed Hernandez, has passed the state Senate and is nearing final approval in the state Assembly.
2
I believe Dr. Krugman ,and a lot of responders, are missing the point here. Trump supporters are not the gullible fools many people think they are. They're fools, certainly, but they're enraged fools that just want to tear everything down and Trump is the means to that end. They know the out sourced jobs aren't coming back and that automation will replace them in the coming years. In their Cain-like rage they want to destroy the system and the people who have succeeded in our capitalistic society. Like blinded Samson, they want pull the pillars of the temple down in a vengeful fit of spite and bile at their own failures and others successes...
4
Do they want to destroy the people who succeeded, though? Because their main targets have been the people who have it worse than them. None of these guys are going out and picking fights with one percenters.
4
I am sad that the rank and file of America, its workers, have barely registered the benefits of these massive tax cuts, which further enrich the wealthiest few, and yet they are still buying the Koolaid that Mr. Trump offers. Health insurance costs are going up, everything is going up, making any paltry tax cut gains negligible.
Meanwhile, he is dismantling the ACA and his secretary of education is undoing provisions that give students defrauded by for-profit schools recourse to get out of debt. Starving the government of taxes is going to mean the eventual targeting of entitlement programs like Medicare which benefit all older Americans. He is strengthening the corporatist leanings of the courts. Our system of checks and balances is eroding, fast.
And yet, he can distract people with odious claims against immigrants and veiled dog-whistle claims against minorities; and people pounce on these distractions. He is attacking the free press which is pointing out his lies and hypocrisies as 'fake news' and calling journalists "enemies of the people." Divide and conquer.
People, wake up and see what is staring you in the face. It's not a shame to admit you were scammed by this guy. Be concerned! Maybe, maybe some of the farmers hurt by his tariffs are starting to wake up. Maybe some of the factory workers whose jobs are adversely affected are realizing that his rhetoric isn't matched by his actions. How about the rest of you? Still voting GOP?
7
I really wish all the people that should be reading your articles actually did!
6
Your understanding of “populism” has more in common with the Narodniks than twenty-first-century Americans.
Republicans have been convincing working Americans to vote against their own interests for decades, mainly by gratuitous flag waving. Trump got elected by nullifying what the flag actually stands for and convincing some that the flag stands for whatever he says it does. The scary part is they believed him regardless of the what the facts say.
5
It was illuminating and horrifying to watch a PBS Newshour reporter interview a female employee of Mid-Continent Nail, the company that is laying off its workers and may have to shut down because of Trump's tariffs on aluminum and steel. Yes, she still supports Trump. The reporter John Yang remained polite and professional, but there it was. Trump-induced cognitive dissonance that is destroying her livelihood. I had assumed that the worse it becomes the easier it will be to get rid of Trump. Now I don't know. Where are people's survival instincts?
6
@Mike T
In this case, "economic anxiety" was only a pretense. These people are religious and racial bigots and they voted for one who would support their bigotry.
Not all people vote for their own prosperity. Some vote for the good of all. In a perverse way, this is what Trump voters think they are doing, "all" being people like themselves, the only people who matter in America.
They don't care that Trump is laughing at them as he robs them. They'd do the same in his case.
4
"He’s scamming his supporters; you don’t have to help him do it [by calling him a populist]".
Doesn't matter. Trump could come right out an call his base the most contemptible people in the history of the planet, and they'd still support him. That's because they are, in fact, the most contemptible people in the history of the planet.
6
With evangelicals, none of this matters. Despite his flaws, he has been chosen by God to put a stop to abortion. They will stay with him no matter what he does.
6
Face it, Trumpies: If Obama had found a cure for cancer, Trump would order the NIH to develop new and "better" forms of cancer.
7
Alright Professor Poor Prognosticator. Why not call him by his official title — that is, Mr President. And twenty-seven months from now after over 70 million vote him a second term, you can spend another lifetime calling the Orange One-der, Mr. President, much to your deep, everlasting chagrin and to our utter satisfaction.
2
@Hester,
What exactly about Trump is giving you satisfaction?
2
The sea world example is not so damning. The rest seems true.
Mr. Krugman,
Stop wasting your time with this nonsense. There is only one issue that's important: putting an end to voter caging. This is why Trump is in the White House. For example:
GOP Georgia Governor Candidate Purged Voter Rolls As Secretary of State, Kemp removed 591,000 voters
https://www.gregpalast.com/georgias-brian-kemp-responsible-for-massive-p...
Write about this:
Palast, Jesse Jackson to Sue 26 States Stop voter purges, Voter Justice Commission told
JULY 25, 2018 Nicole Powers
The Rev. Jesse Jackson joined Greg Palast in announcing the they’ve notified the voting chiefs of 26 states that they will be served with federal lawsuits under the National Voter Registration Act within 60 days if they fail to turn over the millions of names of voters wrongly purged from registration rolls.
https://www.gregpalast.com/palast-testifies-in-front-of-national-commiss...
Nothing else matters, but no one is paying attention. Americans are distracted by this Russian hysteria. Mueller us useless, and Trump will never be impeached, but if he is, God help us because Pence is on deck.
Do it now, before it's too late!
160
I am not familiar with voter caging. What does that mean?
These days, populism has been neutered of its economic and class-warfare connotations, so that it now means a cultural revolt by the less-educated against the establishment rather than a political and economic revolt by the lower classes (and their sympathizers among the intelligencia) against the big economic and financial players. The old meaning is much too Marxist for us these days, where both parties are funded by investors and expected to defend their interests against particularly low paid wage earners.
1
Even "against the establishment" runs into another piece of language-butchering. "Establishment" now basically means college-professors, and/or a few other people, who may or may not include every citizen who's ever voted Democrat (i.e. the majority of the country), but somehow doesn't include the 1%.
Populists (the great 19th century reform party) were the strongest champions of an income tax, labor unions, free trade, and a biracial party that included and yielded rally stages to women. They thought all should vote, and corporations should be highly regulated, even nationalized if they didn't behave.
It is indeed a travesty that the media--including Krugman's own employer and most European academics-- throw this word around with infinitely diverse connotations. Certainly shows a lack of vocabulary and historical knowledge on the part of leading American media, who helped defeat Bernie Sanders (the most genuine populist in the crowd) in the most biased primary coverage I've ever seen.
But I think their sentiment is sincere. Clintonites and their media cronies ARE the new elite, and they are terrified that their control and "globalist" values are being challenged. They went all out to defeat Bernie, and now spend all their time trashing the result (Trump). When will they ever learn?
3
I agree there's nothing populist about Trump other than his appeal to the dregs of popular culture; but I also take issue with the pervasive use of the words 'elite' and 'ordinary' by the media. Despite the judge's complaint in the Manafort trial, 'oligarch' is the appropriate term for those with not only excessive wealth but excessive political power and influence. I think American 'oligarchs' should be substituted for 'elites' which has an undeserved positive connotation. Personally, having neither wealth nor power, I nonetheless object to finding myself described as 'ordinary'. Perhaps 'most citizens' can be substituted for 'ordinary AMericnas". (though I understand even the term 'citizen ' is loaded these days) So perhaps, merely 'most Americans' should be substituted for 'ordinary'...as in 'most Americans can't afford housing, health care or college", most Americans, worry about climate change, most Americans worry about the undue power exercized by oligarchs to their own detriment
3
My mom has a favorite saying... "There are some people who can't be confused by the facts". Unfortunately, to the detriment to America, I believe the majority of Trump's lower amd middle class supporters fall into this category. Mr. Krugman, no one will ever be able to convince them listen to your facts. The only answer is for every American who is elligle to vote.. Should vote... And then maybe we will have a solution.
5
Mr. Krugman, I agree with your thesis.
And thank you Chanzo for revealing Trump's match with the OED definition of demagogue.
But a wise man once told me, "Perception is reality." Trump's base perceives him as fighting for them, despite of all the evidence and indeed facts which have been verified by numerous fact checkers who have no reason to lie.
Sure, it is what he says. But I think the real villain is Rupert Murdock. He figured out that he can generate massive profits by pandering to the fears of busy, ill-informed people. Fox "News" amplifies validates the disinformation campaign led by Trump.
To me that explains Trump's sky high approval ratings amongst Republican voters despite of all the pain he is causing them and he flagrant violation of the mores and standards they claimed to hold dear.
5
Trump is not a populist or patriotic. Republicans are generally not conservative or pro-life. They are not fiscally responsible. We need to stop using these words or use them correctly because it is affecting our thinking.
7
Leaders and policies that claim to represent the popular will can emanate from the right and left of the political spectrum, but they usually contain a strong element of self-invention.The US has a ripe history of demagogues and political shysters who self-defined themselves as populists, mostly at state and city level, and Trump is in that tradition except he's made to the top. A common characteristic is to use their 'populism' as a cover for pursuing policies that benefit them personally and a small clique of hangers on, while indifferent to the interests of the people who voted for them. Trump is part of this tradition, but so much worse than any previous example, and doing far more damage.
How is Kavanaugh's stance on Sea World "extremist"? It seems to be common sense. Without extenuating circumstance and a clear trail of negligence by the employer, the lion tamer doesn't get to sue the circus if the lion eats him! Extreme jobs carry extreme risk, and the people that do those jobs are well aware of the risks, in fact those higher levels of risk are OFTEN times THE reason those people want those jobs. Test pilots die in plane crashes and combat correspondents die in war zones, if you don't want the risk don't do the job, someone else will. If your a pilot, fly commuter planes. A journalist, write an opinion column or report local news. And if your a veterinarian/animal trainer, then by God, stick to the local animal hospital or run an obedience school for family pets.
1
Even when speaking of inherently dangerous jobs, there are established guidelines that employees should and are generally required to follow when doing this work. When the employer continually pushes employees to violate these guidelines, thereby courting disaster, I would think that employer liability is a given, or at least worthy of being scrutinized through litigation. Employers actually do have responsibility to their employees, not just vice versa.
6
Yep. Airline pilots generally don't have to worry about their employer's concealing the fact that the tail falls off the Dreamliner every two weeks.
By the way, it's kind of irrational to say that you took the job, you knew the risks, when the whole point is that the guy who hired you HID the risks from you.
2
@Melinda Mueller
I agree with your sentiment, but that wasn't the case. There was no indication that any guidelines had been broken nor that there was a pattern of SeaWorld pushing employees to violate such guidelines. One could argue just the opposite, given the fact that Dawn was, and still is, the only trainer at SeaWorld to be killed by an animal. OSHA said in a report, resulting from a 2006 incident, "The continuing factors to the incident, in the simplest of terms, is that swimming with captive orcas is inherently dangerous". After Dawn's death, Sea World immediately imposed a ban, that is still in place, on any trainer from being in a pool with an Orca. The allegation was that SeaWorld was negligent for not having more guidelines in place to prevent a death, but no one at Sea World had ever been killed with the, then current, guidelines in place. Dawn Brancheau was an expert in her field and had worked with Orca's for nearly 14 years. She was one of the most knowledgeable people there, if not in the world, on the risks and dangers of her profession. I imagine she had a pretty wide berth on imposing new guidelines if she felt there was a safety concern. I don't know how many Orca trainers exist in the world, but my guess is that there are more people who have walked on the moon. How do you regulate the dangers of a position that nearly nobody knows anything about? You can't bring in a plumber to write the rules for sailing a ship, just because they both deal with water!
The Washington Post currwntly has a story about Americans being outnumbered by spanish-speaking workers on the job at a chicken processor, with the implied note of "better get used to it, you should have learned Spanish".
In February the Chicago Sun Times had a story about a bakery where the American workers had been bullied and treated badly by the spanish-speaking coworkers until ICE was called, the spanish-speaking coworkers removed, the bakery sold and the American workers hired to do the work previously done by what were apparently illegal immigrants.
What's wrong with wanting our government wanting to support American workers - and why aren't you understanding that?
This, immigration issues, is the main reason why many voted for Trump.
What did Chicagos' native son Barak Obama do about the Chicago bakery issue? The current administration got Americans on the payroll there.
These are not isolated cases, they aren't high profile but they exist and do affect people.
5
Restricting immigration is a form of protectionism which is always wrong whether it is for steel, dairy products or labor. If someone will do your job for less, you are overpaid. That’s how free markets work.
2
@From Where I Sit Of course there are. And, there is a special place for people who want to evade federal immigration laws, worker safety, insurance and taxes - perhaps you'll be able to locate that first hand.
1
@Margo,
As it happens, your interpretation of that story is not in line with the facts.
There is no evidence that the Spanish-speaking workers harassed the black American workers.
Their was tension between the two groups, but the reason was more for the language barrier than anything else.
The blacks were placed by an agency that paid them $14 an hour, whereas the immigrants were placed by one that paid them only $10.
Yet the immigrants stayed on the job longer and were more efficient and productive than the Americans.
Calling ICE against the immigrants was actually a nasty, back-biting trick, from which no one profited.
1
I believe the rumors I've heard that Trump has already killed people with his bare hands, not with a gun. Supposedly, in the early 1970's, some of the (very few) elderly Black tenants living alone in the Coney Island Trump Houses who had no known relatives or friends, were strangled to death by Donald, so the apartments could be emptied, fixed up, and the rents raised quicker. That's what I heard people saying on the bus from Downtown Brooklyn to King's Plaza.
It's much, much easier to believe those rumors than to believe there is any video or audio anywhere in which Trump says, "I'm sorry."
1
I have wondered that myself. How is it that someone so unpopular and so uninterested in appealing to a majority be called populist? Maybe it's reticence to call him what he really is - a fascist.
4
The unemployment rate is down, a record number of Americans are working, the financial markets are up meaning that retirement accounts across the board are looking terrific, people are less worried about North Korea, the rich Europeans have finally gotten the message that they need to pay more for their own defense. On and on. How can Krugman write that the ordinary working American is not benefiting from the gains of the past year and a half? His ideology is blinding him to reality. It is Krugman who is no populist. All that he seems to espouse about working Americans is that they are dumb hayseeds who refuse to take his advise.
5
@Navigator,
The tax break will benefit the very rich. It will hardly benefit any ordinary workers, and will actually harm many of them, because of the change in allowable deductions.
And those who are not rich will lose any benefits they have when their tax cuts expire in 2015.
Meanwhile, Trump is trying to cut taxes for the rich even further, and his tariffs will force companies to raise prices and lay off workers, both of which will reduce demand for goods and depress the economy.
Unemployment is down because the labor participation rate is worse than it's been in decades. The real unemployment figure is double the official one: not 3.8% but 7.6%.
And real wages are not increasing at all, while those who do not lose their health insurance altogether will lose coverage for pre-existing conditions and see a substantial rise in premiums.
3
@Jerry Engelbach (cont.)
North Korea has not changed a thing. They are not testing, but still have their nukes and are still stockpiling material. The threat from North Korea was Trump's exacerbated by Trump the first place, so it's hardly an accomplishment that he has backed off.
Trump's policies towards Iran and US allies have been to the country's detriment. Iran can now produce nukes unfettered by the US, and whatever political capital thenUS has had with its allies is being buried by his heavy-handed demands.
Retirement accounts depend almost entirely upon dividends from stable stocks, so increased stock prices and more trading have virtually no effect on them.
Americans are still heavily in debt, most do not have the cash to fend off a real emergency, and they are working their butts off for lower wages than they made before the recession.
Trump deserves credit for bringing the Us closer to fascism. At that he excels.
@Jerry Engelbach
That's 2025, not 2015. My typo.
At some point, Trumps Andy Griffith "Face in the Crowd" shtick will wear thin and reality will reassert itself. The low hanging get it out of your system anger fruit will all be consumed and we will see what happens. For the moment, the Trump shtick is not an entirely useless corrective to the smug, superiority of the social and economic elites whose totally off the wall devotion to fringe ideas and causes insult common sense behavior and morality far out of proportion to their practical appeal and application. We will eventually arrive at a national economic and social consensus though who knows how or when. In the meantime, let's hope God (or the Force) keeps on watching over us.
Since when is a treasonous leader who made his money by gaming the American tax payer a populist. He is a criminal who some Russians, dimwits and other criminals put in control of the U.S..
5
The last thing I need is a rich old white man to tell me what Trump has and hasn't done for me. My retirement is more secure and 2 more people in my family have jobs who didn't under years of Obama. You don't know a thing about the working class, Paul, you just hate Trump.
7
@Joe,
I doubt that anything Trump did is responsible for your family's jobs.
In fact, his tariffs are about to cost many people their jobs.
Your retirement, given the aim of the GOP to cut back Social Security and Medicare, is, if anything, less secure.
1
Populism motivates large numbers of working class and middle class citizens. It addresses perceived needs: economic, political, scapegoating. It inspires feelings of self worth and empowerment. It can help, hurt, even destroy its constituents. IT COVERS A BROAD SPECTRUM OF MOVEMENTS --THERE IS NO ONE POPULISM. Therein lies the confusion...
Trump populism brings together elements of disaffected and vested interests ranging from Southern Baptists and Evangelicals, Neo Nazis, blue collar, white men to billionnairs in a toxic stew that is dividing and harming vast numbers of its constituents and the country they cheer under the banner of America First.
Trump populism harms: health care, taxes, income distribution, education, infrastructure, immigration, trade policy, NATO and allies, Russia, foreign policy, the media, environment, regulation, macro-economy, social safety nets, prisons, sentencing, divisiveness, truth. Racism, prejudice, misogyny, classism. Trump populism will harm the vast majority of its constituents and the US in measurable ways.
It is a populism with 43% approval rating. For now.
It is a populism built upon taking away, denying, demeaning, religious prejudice.
It is a populism that would deny health care to the poor, sick, children if they are different.
It is a populism built to punish and distance itself from those beneath.
It is a narrow, ugly populism. And history tells us it will be nasty, brutish and short.
1
If the so-called president REPRESENTS his base, then the base is composed of:
Pathological liars
Racists
Fascists
Con men and scammers
Haters
The control obsessed religious
Misogynists
Xenophobes
Unindicted criminals of all varieties ranging from those
who sexually assault women to money launderers to
traitors
Men and women who have no respect for and who
frequently disobey the law
The easily duped
I leave it to you to say whether the above are the only people he represents.
5
I dunno if Trump's a populist or not; I can see the thing both ways.
But I do know that the fervor with which Trumpists chant the same chants, repeat the same errors and lies, throw colorful adjectives at the wall rather than offering facts, call everybody else neurotic girly-men, and fly into a rage when they slow down enough to encounter a criticism, sure makes him look like the Maximum Leader of a populist movement rather than a President of the United States of America.
I mean, gals and guys, come on already. You want to cheer for your hero, cheer away. You want to swear up and down how great he is, okay by me. You want to rally, wave signs, whatever, nifty. You wanna criticize liberals, lefties and progressives, I've got a few suggestions abut how.
But when you keep chanting that Trump built the greatest! economy! ever!, well, I'm just gonna say, look at trend lines since 2010. Chant that GDP growth's the HIGHEST EVER! and I'll try to show you the graphs that say so far, Trump's quarterly GDP growth has never equalled at least 2 quarters under Obama. Wages? Same growth for the last six years. Illegal immigration? It dropped after about 2012.
Then I'm gonna ask about the 300 folks at Harley lost their jobs today. Or about soy farmers, and the markets they're losing. Or about the $100 billion MORE Trump wants to hand the wealthiest. Or...
But of course you win't listen or look. You cannot afford to. It's a sign of populism.
4
What does it matter what you call Trump? He is a proven pathological liar. What difference does it make what else you call him?
2
pop·u·list
ˈpäpyələst
noun
1.
a member or adherent of a political party seeking to represent the interests of ordinary people.
This term has never applied to Trump, who seeks to PRESENT himself as representing the interests of ordinary people when in fact, as Mr. Krugman notes, he represents precisely the opposite. It's amazing the terms that get thrown around these days by folks too lazy to learn their true meaning.
2
"And my guess is that he actually takes pleasure in watching his supporters follow him even as be betrays them." The thing is, will any of those people read through this column? And less likely, will any see this comment? If so: What are you thinking? I don't mean that as a rhetorical attack. Unless you honestly do belief that the global institution of the press is a conspiracy of lies, what are your thoughts as you read - not only here, but all over - about the clear evidence that Mr. Trump despises you? Yes, this column and many of the comments were written by folks who object strenuously to Mr. Trump's presidency. In many cases, I think, they did so originally only because they'd experienced him or his type in action enough times before. So they knew the warning signs - a person can't say the kinds of things he says, and carry out the kind of career that he actually has, and have a generous, thoughtful heart underneath. And they continue to object to his presidency because they're seeing much of what they feared actually playing out. In fact, many more who didn't see his pre-11/8/16 behavior - professional and private - as red flags nonetheless have concluded, after the past year and a half, that he's screwing the country badly. And very many of them are, at heart, NO different from you - except for the fact that you continue to support Mr. Trump and they don't. So, respectfully, what thinking and what evidence underlies that support? Thank you for your consideration.
1
Trump is by no means a populist. He is an elitist by definition. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth - a spoon he has pawned multiple times to banks and investors - nearly losing his inherited wealth in the process, until the Russians came along and bailed him out repeatedly with dark laundered money.
Trump cares not a whit about the man on the street - to him they are losers that he has complete contempt for, just as he has contempt for disabled people whom he mocks, and for desperate immigrants, whose children he has ripped from their mothers' arms.
We are witnessing a Reality TV star with a history of abusing women play out a role of a vulgar so-called Presidential in a series with far too many episodes. Paul Krugman is correct. Trump is not a populist. Contorted and meritless comparisons in the media give far more credibility to the Orange Wizard of Oz than his own well-used smoke and mirrors.
5
There is also confusion in opposing populism to democracy, as some commenters appear to do. Some populism is democratic. Mr. Krugman convincingly shows us that Trump’s version is not.
1
Hitler's first acts were to control the courts so that his policies would have no opposition, Trumps constraint by Law is soon coming to an end.
Trump is true to his true base, Corporations and the 1%, who fantasize about the possibilities of Nazi slave labor in the modern era.
A Leader , a controlled press, and a subservient population to serve them.
Russians have a better medical structure than the USA, in a lot of ways we are a third world country already.
4
I agree there's nothing populist about Trump other than his appeal to the dregs of popular culture; but I also take issue with the pervasive use of the words 'elite' and 'ordinary' by the media. Despite the judge's complaint in the Manafort trial, 'oligarch' is the appropriate term for those with not only excessive wealth but excessive political power and influence. I think American 'oligarchs' should be substituted for 'elites' which has an undeserved positive connotation. Personally, having neither wealth nor power, I nonetheless object to finding myself described as 'ordinary'. Perhaps 'most citizens' can be substituted for 'ordinary AMericnas". (though I understand even the term 'citizen ' is loaded these days) So perhaps, merely 'most Americans' should be substituted for 'ordinary'...as in 'most Americans can't afford housing, health care or college", most Americans, worry about climate change, most Americans worry about the undue power exercized by oligarchs to their own detriment
4
@Porter
"most Americans can't afford housing, health care, college"??????--If that were true, then prices would fall
quickly. If you look at any standard of living metrics, you will see housing has become larger, better, and less expensive (in all but the "elite"cities. 4% mortgages assist affordability enormously. For rental house, contrast the features and amenities standard today with those of 30-40 years ago. Vast improvement.
I could go on--but check the stats in all SOL categories. You will gain a dose of reality.
2
To me, the run up this election sounds a lot like 2016. There is a lot of hope on the Dems side but they are blind to the issues that drive votes. The open Supreme Court seat was huge incentive for many Republicans to stay inside the party. The party itself was very smart, not making it a daily headline issue but when those last few days before the election rolled around, they hit really hard with direct phone call, emails, etc. reminding folks how important that seat was. What is different here? They will rope a dope until the week before the election, the Dems will be giddy, and then they will hit hard on three issues: (1)Open Supreme Court seat (2)They will appeal to the 70% of us that do not want a country with a free for all immigration policy (3) They will take credit for the economy. It's a heady mix as it satisfies the base to a degree as well as many Independents. That is some serious headwind the Dems will have to sail though if you ask me.
8
@Edward
Sure conservatives will lie their way to any possible gains in midterms. They have a powerful right wing propaganda. Dems don't have that.
So they will have to run on some realistic proposals:
1. Universal health care in long term, fixing Obamacare, adding Public Option in short term.
2. Infrastructure program.
3. Immigration reform
4. Stop conservative corruption in the government and Congress.
4
Thank you, professor.
As the long-time editor and publisher of Populist Daily, a populist/progressive blog, I have written several times about the difference between a true Populist and a Fascist, like Trump, or Bannion or many of the others on that side of the political spectrum.
The difference between a public understanding of the word "popular" and the word "Populist" is the equivalent between watching television and reading. No need to go into the character or intellectual level of the Trump supporter. One only needs to watch one small part of any audience at a Trump rally.
I'm sure that the Europeans are alternately laughing and crying at the condition of the American state. Our loss of rationality. Our loss of common goals. Our loss of civility. Our overall loss of government control.
And, finally, our conditional hope in the future, given the conversion of such a large segment of the population to Right Wing propaganda, now coming not just from thousands of paid radio hosts and bloggers here, but their allies among the old totalitarian Communists resurrected in Russia.
Putin is a dictator in the old Stalinist mode. Trump is a wannabe dictator, armed with an obsequious Republican Party.
No, he is not a Populist. He is a reckless, foolish inheritance baby who never matured. We must deny him any more damage by electing a Democratic House and Senate.
It will not just happen. We must get out of our comfort zones, go out and win.
www.populistdaily.com
14
@Joseph OShaughnessy
I sounds to me like you are trying to take ownership, and narrow its defintion in a direction that suits you or freeze it in time, to what it meant in U.S. politics over 100 years ago.
It would be helpful to explain how and why Chavez, Duterte, Kircher, Morales and so many other authoritarian leaders around the world who have strong support from "common people" are not populists (in the broader sense of the word).
The commonly used terms "Populist" and "Elite" have become ambiguous in politically-oriented discourse. They are used like blank tiles in Scrabble, the Yiddish word "Nu" and the Joker in the deck: to mean only what the user intends including connotations and judgement. They no longer have stable, universally understood inherent meaning in common discourse. Time to remove them from responsible journalism at least for now.
3
I've never called Trump a populist and neither should anyone else. First of all, he is not a populist. Secondly, he's a demagogue. When someone's a demagogue, that supersedes any and all other labels that might be applied to a person.
3
Kavanaugh's idea of accountability is fascinating. Basically any action we take, as long as we are aware of the dangers associated with it, we are responsible. Just think of this were true of automobile accidents where it's common knowledge they occur. Hence, if you operate a car, and cross the median having head on collision killing the other driver, you can argue the other driver was responsible for losing his or her life. What a wonderful world we live in!
3
He's actually the most effective Republican president. He masterfully gives the base what they want to hear - attacks against the others, be it non-whites, Muslims, the educated, the press - keeping them satisfied in their rage, while enacting policies to subjugate them further and further. Conman, yes, populist, no.
7
Call me old-fashioned, but I just don't want Russia running our country. I've seen what they've done to their own.
5
People from his working class base feel empowered by hate and what they're doing to other people. This power-high has made it impossible for them to notice what Trump is doing to them, and what they are doing to themselves by supporting him.
He's a populist only in terms of making racism and hate mainstream.
8
@Michael, that's it, exactly. They are intoxicated with what he is saying to them and they aren't able to notice what he's doing because of it. Very apt description.
3
I highly doubt that Professor Krugman has any interactions at all with working class Americans, except those who clean his house, mow his lawn, etc. I challenge him to identify any working class people with whom he consulted before writing this typical screed. Trump's base is working and middle class Americans who are fully capable of judging whether Trump serves their interests or not. They don't need Krugman, dripping with sanctimony and a perceived superiority, to tell them
5
@Red,
They obviously can't see for themselves, so, yes, they do need someone who is not enmeshed in and blinded by Trump's cult of authoritarianism to inform them of it.
When asked, Trump's faithful do not articulate sound reasons for supporting him based on the facts.
They ignore the harm he is doing to them, the economy, and the United States, and either parrot Trump's own rhetoric or mouth inaccurate generalities about how much better everything is, regardless of the reality.
They believe his lies, or at least pretend to, so they cannot be convinced by the truth.
2
They put him in office, let them suffer the consequences.
1
Did you catch the reference to Inigo Montoya? Nice one.
3
He’s not a populist, he’s a straight ahead con man. His entire business career seems to have been based on telling people whatever it was they needed to hear to get them to hand over their money, and his career in politics is no different. He tries out a theme (build a wall, kneeling football players don’t love our country) and if it gets good ratings he proceeds to beat it to death. Not exactly a mystery.
7
The inability to circle what's happening (or the refusal) with what is happening every day, is just staggering. Here's a story: Friend (progressive, owns a gun) goes to a sane gun control rally, is approached by a Trump supporter. Supporter says he keeps his guns in case a "tyrannical government" tries to take them. Friend says, "You mean the Trump government? Didn't you vote for it? You don't know what he's doing. You don't know what's he's agreed to. You think you'd prevail against police or military with your little stash if it came down to that? Trump supporter stares. Friend goes on. "You do understand that he's not on America's side, right? He is the face of tyrannical government." Trump supporter gets angry, walks off.
3
I am going low here but honestly Trump is hard to look at and even worse to listen to. Aren't enough people sick of his visage alone?
7
@NemoToad, I wonder that all the time!! :D
3
Go ask the Trump supporters in Midwest .. he is "for" them and will vote for him even if he does more harm to working class people and USA at the world stage ! - You will believe me come Nov 2018.( I sincerely hope I am wrong .. but the reality on ground cannot be ignored )
So this educated discussion is fruitless.. you cannot help when some one does not want it !
4
"Stop Calling Trump a Populist."
Amen. Calling Trump a populist is journalistic malpractice. His voters were relatively well off. He made scads promises. Some of his promises would have made a positive difference, e.g., "better and cheaper health care for everybody." He has broken every one of those. The only promises he has kept are the racist and white nationalist promises which had no basis in reality, e.g., immigration and tariffs. He is a pathological liar who explicitly and apparently intentionally follows the Goebbels dogma. The bigger the lie the better. Tell the big lies over and over. Destroy the sources of fact that could disprove the big lie. The words for what he is are almost too inflammatory to use here.
4
This president is trying to project himself as populist by furiously working on a different part of the national psyche. He is waging war on rationality, morality, and honesty, while feeding the darkest parts of the human soul with his base gruel. He is the most dangerous president this country has ever had, not only because of the physical destruction he risks, but by his attempt to establish what is irrational as if it is normal.
3
Mr. Krugman, is right on point. Mr. Trump, is the exact opposite of a Populist. He was born and raised an Elitist, a person of the wealthist class. Throughout his business career, he has used the legal loop holes in the bankruptcy law to enrich himself . He has used those loopholes, at the expense of the "Working Class". His Companies have declared bankruptcy multiple times to prevent paying contractors money they owed. Sending many of them into bankruptcy, unable to pay their workers. He said in the Presidental debate "That makes ME SMART." He said "I will fix it, when I am elected President." Him and the Republicans have done nothing to eliminate the loop holes, he and his lawyers have exploited for years. I say that makes him an Exploiter and a Liar. Trump University, is another example of preying on the "Working Class." The lawsuit against The Trump Charitiable Foundation, may also be exposed as another example of his greed. Since being elected President, he and the Republicans have pandered to the top 1-10% of the wealthist segment of Americans, enriching them and their companies more with the Tax Reform Act, at the expense of the "Working Class" in the long term. The regulatory attacks against the ACA, Social Security, Medic Care and EPA are more examples of their assault on "The Common Man". All he wants for the "Working Class" is our votes, while giving us nothing for them. He is an Elitist. He is a Liar, a Con Man, and very far from being a true Populist!!!
5
"he actually takes pleasure in watching his supporters follow him even as be betrays them"
That's the definition of a con man, which of course we all knew he was since he first started working with his rich father.
3
The DNC shouldn't have taken Bernie out, he might have won.
7
Mr. Krugman you say, "Trump is about as populist as he is godly — that is, not at all."
Amen.
The Con Don is nothing but the talking head for the International Mafia Top 1% Financial Elite Robber Baron/radical religion Good Old Boys' cabal talking head. He loves Netanyahu and Putin. He is a traitor.
4
The trade policy-related risks are particularly acute because of Trump's biggest falsehood, which is by far the most dangerous, because so many people who are vehemently opposed to Trump appear to have bought into it, is that the US has entered into terrible trade deals. The exact opposite is the truth. The US may not be No. 1 in everything, but we are definitely No. 1 in negotiators and lawyers.
If two foreign countries, say Brazil and Argentina, were in a trade-related dispute, both sides will hire American negotiators and lawyers. One tactic the US has used to get the upper hand in trade negotiations was to use American women to do the face-to-face negotiation. Many foreign cultures were unused to dealing with women at that level. This gave the US an additional advantage when negotiating the trade deals, that made America the world's largest and strongest economy.
Most distressing is that the leftist protectionists like Bernie Sanders were so quickly able to go from complaining that trade deals like NAFTA and the TPP were examples of corporate America exploiting the workers of the world, to agreeing with Trump's false assertion that the trade deals were one sided against American business interests..."
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4188416
1
The writer is right, and wrong. Right because the "working class" always gets the short end, regardless of who is in public office. He is wrong, because Trump is in fact a populist--for votes. But like all politicians he is an elitist for campaign funds. Thereby is the central dichotomy and dysfunction of electoral politics: one class is necessary to court for election results (the masses); the other much smaller class is necessary to court for dollars--and for those dollars they buy post-election favors and obedience. Voting alone buys nothing. The only class above it all is the military: all presidents tow the line on Pentagon and Agency agendas, or else they can, and have been, put in unpleasant and unfortunate circumstances.
2
They get ya coming and going, guys, right before your eyes. Don't worry, though. When you can't afford to go to the T-Love rallies, they'll bus you in.
Trump is a classist totalitarian. He excels at convincing his supporters that they are a class above the people he demonizes -- brown skinned immigrants, non-Christians, the press. That makes his follows feel empowered. No one wants to be at the bottom of the class structure. By creating this smokescreen and tricking his follows to pour anger into hatred of the Trump-designated lower classes (who are out to steal everything great about America), he diverts his attention from the real Republican platform: divert all the wealth to the smallest group at the top.
4
While I take Krugman's point and even kinda agree, Trump DOES show some of the qualities of a populist, especially those associated with rabble-rousing.
Moreover, there are reasons that media uses "populist," rather than other and darker terms that are just as close, and no more accurate. Take, "Fascist;" yes, the bundling of corporations and churches is suggestive. So is the fascination with goose-steppers, their uniforms, and their parades. But the military ain't there, and neither are a lot of religious people and groups.
Relax, I say. It's just not hard to read straight through the word, and see what's being said. Oh, and can "leftists," stop beating up on the Press for reporting what the President does, and generally not just screaming epithets in his general direction?
Stupid as Trump's own attacks are, there's an eensy bit of truth there: we need to at least try separating facts and opinions.
1
The Trump Doctrine:
Donnie First, Donnie Second, All for Donnie
3
I look forward to the day we stop calling him "President"
4
Says Paul, "Stop Calling Trump a Populist".
OK, Paul, stop calling calling people who come across our border illegally as simply "undocumented":
"That is, places with a lot of immigrants, legal and undocumented..." (Paul Krugman, June 21st). Call them what they are, Paul - illegal immigrants.
"There’s also health policy, where Trump, having failed to repeal Obamacare — which would have been a huge blow to working families — has engaged instead in a campaign of sabotage that has probably raised premiums by almost 20 percent relative to what they would have been otherwise."
Paul, neither you nor anyone else has any clue how much higher or lower premiums would have been if Trump hadn't taken steps to modify the ACA. Did you believe Obama when he said that premiums for a family would drop by an average of $2500? How did that work out?
Said Paul, in response to Trump's win: "Still, I guess people want an answer: If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never." (November 9, 2016)
3
The act of crossing the border without proper documentation is illegal. The people are not illegal.
I see you skipped the parts where Krugman backed up his claims, especially the ref to the Urban Institute study of the effects of Trump's attacks on the PPACA.
Why is that, I wonder? I mean, you even claimed he didn't try to support a word.
2
@Peggy Bussell: "The act of crossing the border without proper documentation is illegal. The people are not illegal."
I said they are illegal immigrants, not simply illegal. Paul said there were two types of immigrants: legal and undocumented. Why didn't Paul say "documented and undocumented"?
Don't call Trump a populist. To the simplistic it makes him sound popular.
Don't call Trump an authoritarian. To the simplistic it makes him sound like an authority.
Don't call Trump a strongman. To the simplistic it makes him sound strong.
Don't call Trump a bigot. To the simplistic it makes him sound big.
Call Trump a fascist. It makes him sound unattractive, unappealing and unlikable.
2
Got that right, Paul. The correct word is fascist. And while we're at it, stop pretending that Trump "has no ideology" and that he "used to be a Democrat." This is all nonsense. Trump was not in politics before 2015, so he has no extensive public record on issues. But we all know he was a racist, nativist, mysogrnist all along.
2
Populist is a vile lie when the media allows this word to describe Trump. It makes us think he give a damn for the majority of us when he only cares for his cronies and himself. Even the Koch brothers are becoming wary of him.
What you should do is note what Trump really is....cruel, vindictive, and petty, taking great joy in hurting those stupid enough to support him, proving in his mind their fitness as victims. Recall how he thinks the farmers will be happy to take the tariffs that hurt them because after all, they come from him.
3
Hitler had little respect for the German people, yet he galvanized them to follow him. Sheep are easily led. The dumber the sheep, the better.
6
Trump is exactly the same type of populist as "Lonesome Rhodes."
https://deadline.com/2016/10/andy-griffith-elia-kazan-donald-trump-12018...
2
Well put, Paul. Any understanding and tolerance I had for the under / working class of people is gone, replaced by incredulity and contempt for their being sooooo stupid ! Trump serves as a lightning rod for their anger at their situation in life and racism. There are no other reasons...
2
Absolutely! "No populist, no POPULIST!" He's a SOCIOPATH with a Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). That is "a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of conscience." There's only the need to be superior to others (as with a Napoleon complex) often by ridiculing them (as in Crooked Hillary, Pocahontas, Witch Hunt, Fake News, etc.); demands loyalty, but has absolutely no empathy for others; needs constant praise and adulation (as in rallies where he builds his weak ego up by tearing others down); but is cunning and ruthless in trying to use this to get support (aka his "base") by picking targets they support (like Hispanic immigrants); and is totally untrustworthy (to the point where you must only VERIFY by examining his actual behavior).
3
Trump's appeal is simple. As you say, he "likes to humiliate others." People who are feeling insecure- emotionally, financially and in terms of status- often like to hitch their ego to a bully, even if it makes their daily life worse, as this article illustrates. The brutalities of junior high school don't end when people turn 21. A cheap road to feeling better is to make "them" feel worse.
Many Americans deal with self-doubt and everyday difficulties with the belief that "at least I am white," or a man, or straight, etc. So as this country becomes truly pluralistic demographically, no longer a "White" country, that source of false assurance is threatened. And people are willing to blind themselves to the reality that they are only harming themselves economically, as long as they have someone to look down on.
Hatred is a powerful temporary anesthetic for real suffering. In terms of the future of this country, it is a bigger problem than opioids. Cutting off one's nose to spite someone else's face can be comforting, while getting screwed by the oligarch's of Trump world. Trump's one talent is harvesting and escalating such destructive emotional forces amongst his cult followers.
3
Okay, Dr. K put yet another arrow in our quiver. But it's already burst its seams. In fact, we now need a freight train to carry all the negatives of 45.
And everyone that cares can list most of them. We see the writing on the wall.
But how does this knowledge translate itself into action, positive change? We need to find, and take, an exit, escaping from our current political emergency. But all I see are "No Exits Until November 6, 2018." Till then, we are trapped in a raging dumpster fire.
Maybe not even the Founding Fathers could help us here, although Tom Steyer is trying to extinguish the blaze by removing its biofuelant.
2
Mr. Krugman makes a solid point. IT is misleading and enabling to refer to Mr. Trump as a 'populist'.
Perhaps the media should always refer to him as a 'plutocrat' which would be considerably more accurate.
But Trump is, indeed, a text book populist. A populist isn't "the peoples's champion against the elites" - rather someone who PRETENDS to be so and exploits deep seated and often irrational sentiments in the masses. Populism isn't a positive movement.
2
@JonasNeither is the alternative.
Populism is not necessarily about supporting policies that will help blue-collar America. It is about pointing to issues and assigning blame in ways that resonate and align with this demographic and it's prejudices. The same is true of Populists in Europe. Fomenting racism, decrying the "educated elite",promising a return to the "great" days and pointing to unfair competition are guaranteed to work since a majority of the group does not have the bandwidth or metacognition necessary to see them for what they are, red herrings that mask the real issues to be dealt with. Sadly, neither populist leaders or their opponents on the (usually) Left will tell it like it is.US culture needs to move on from beliefs that have their origins in a different era. We, like any other established, democratic Developed country now have a Class System. There is no longer a level playing field and therefore blaming individuals for not "making it" is just as wrong as telling them to "follow their dreams and find something they are passionate about".Nor is it appropriate to focus on the "right to a college education" with no nuance on the school, major or cost, let alone that for many, a (marketable)Trade would be much more useful. Furthermore, wages for jobs with undifferentiated skills will keep going down as supply continues to exceed demand. Focus on relevant skills, education and geography.The rest will follow..
4
Indeed, Trump is a faux-populist. And the media should describe him as such. But does America need a true populist? Or more to the point, is it more realistic in 2020 that a true populist would more likely be elected over the status quo Democrats embodied by Clintonist middle-way politics?
I happen to think that the lesson here is that the Democratic Party should move leftward to nab the disenchanted and pledge to reverse inequality, which I believe is the crux of the discontent that led to Trump's election. Of course, that platform would include policies that would truly benefit the disadvantaged. The difficulty is getting such a person nominated in the first place, and one who could actually win.
The Democratic Party needs to run candidates in 2018 on such a platform to lay the groundwork for 2020's presidential election. By controlling the House with representatives that push for reform and call out Republican obstructionism on a daily basis, there is some hope of reaching at least some of the people who had believed that Trump would actually help them.
Yes, that might be asking too much of the American people, but I really don't see an alternative. Voters clearly rejected business-as-usual politicians and I don't see them suddenly deciding that they were wrong -- it is difficult to change minds that have for, in some cases, decades seen the status quo politicians as corrupt and useless.
1
It is stunning that after over a year-and one-half people in this country, working middle class Americans still believe Trump is doing the people's work.
There is nothing he has proposed or put in place that has helped the average joe or jane. Everything he has accomplished, if you can use that word, has given another leg up to corporations and the wealthiest amongst us. It is not trickling down and never will. The job front looks good, except wages have continued to stagnate because companies are not investing in their workers but in AI, feeding their stockholders, and raising their salaries, etc.
As to safety here at home, his bombastic rhetoric and his summits have not yielded anything but the ability for Trump to give himself kudos. He continues to be a sham, he continues to be a danger to our democracy.
2
Mr. Krugman: thank you for your Opinion Column, "Stop Calling Trump a Populist." I'm in awe of Trump's ability to maintain his base of power. In my mind, a populist's main actions should be in support of the health, education and welfare of their supporters. A "Populist" should set an example that they understand their mandate by their actions. If anything, Trump acts more like Nero, feeding a constant supply of his critics, or anyone who poses a challenge or questions the authority of his Imperial Power, to the Lions in the "Forum." Yet, no matter how debasing or desultory his actions and words, his supporters continue to flock to Trump's throne and bow down to kiss his proverbial ring. The man who has mentioned his intelligence on too many occasions is anything but. The man speaks and tweets in tongues. I often wonder if English is his second language. His consistent and never ending challenges regarding "Freedom of the Press" should put a chill in the hearts and minds of all American citizens. Yet....his ring is wearing out from all the kissing. I wonder if the reasons behind his popularity are an uneducated electorate, a "Reality TV" mindset and a lack of familiarity with our Constitution. Or, is there a psychological factor to his popularity that I just don't get.
2
Krugman is becoming increasingly hyperbolic. Could it be because Trump is illustrating that Krugman's economic dogma has failed, and conservative economic policies are proving to be far superior? When it comes to anti-worker policies maybe Krugman could speak with some coal miners to find who really inflicts economic violence on workers.
2
For all the anger, we need to focus on voting. The republican turnout advantage in midterm elections is well documented. See here for example:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/do-republicans-really-have-a-big-tu...
Let's focus on doing something truly historic and reversing this. If you are reading and writing comments and haven't put yourself in a position to vote, you are wasting your time. Let's help as many people we can vote. Nothing says you are not a populist more than being trounced in an election.
2
I think a lot of people, including unfortunately journalists, confuse the terms "populist" and "demagogue".
If the U.S. were an authentic democracy—if it were far less gerrymandered and given to voter suppression; if plutocratic donors and their money did not play so large a role; if the Electoral College were abolished; if Election Day were a national holiday, etc.—the Republican Party would be roadkill.
President Trump merely scraped up the GOP’s about-to-be carcass and, with his pseudo-populism, now shakes some semblance of zombie life into its extremities.
If a populist politician is one who serves the interests of the “little people,” Trump is a PIRO—a Populist In Rhetoric Only. Trump has abiding contempt for the “little-people-losers” he manipulates.
Elevation of the maker-winners, and disparagement and neglect of the taker-losers is central to both the GOP’s programs and accords well with Trump’s temperament.
Trump has merely reordered the GOP’s focus on “short-term economic efficiency” to mean “economic efficiency that, at increased costs to the little-people-losers, promotes first and foremost the interests of Trump himself, his family and his friends.” Trump’s “populist conservatism” is just more openly self-serving and kleptocratic than is the plutocratic “conservatism” promoted by many GOP politicians.
5
Mr. Krugman, how is your post-election prediction of a stock market collapse and economic ruin for the country panning out?
Of course Trump is not a populist. He's a con man, plain and simple. Nearly everything he does has an element of distraction from something else he is doing that proves to be surprisingly recursive His base is too busy believing he's their champion to take notice of his policy hypocrisy, while his opposition's attempts to point that hypocrisy out has all the effects of tilting at windmills because his base is so self insulated. It's as though he's found a way to sit in the eye of a hurricane of his own making and orchestrate his own brand of chaos. And chaos seldom ends well.
3
Trump has never been a populist. He is a self-centered opportunist. His signature legislative achievement, the tax reform plan, was a give-away to wealthy stock holders and corporations and the latest unemployment numbers show what little stimulative effect it had.
Sure, he picks winners in the economy, like a toddler picks boogers, to help a few hundred workers here and there, but he will harm the vast majority of citizens. Forcing the EU to buy more soy beans and natural gas are two good examples, since that action will help few, but likely bring higher prices for most American consumers.
5
I guess you are less than neutral on Trump. Notwithstanding your animus for Trump, a few comments are necessary about your ideology driven analysis.
1. The tax cut does benefit all workers, not just the rich. When will you Dems stop lying about this. Taxes are cut based on how much taxes are paid. The more you pay in taxes, the more you will benefit by the cuts. We find it fair that the wealthy pay a larger percentage of their income in taxes than a moderate income taxpayer would pay. So, what is unfair about the wealthy taxpayer getting a larger check? Only the redistributive left thinks this is unfair.
2. You are always prating about how the working class is voting GOP against it's economic interests. Yet, wealthy Dems who seek redistribution of incomes are also voting Dem against their economic interests. This is so because all groups vote on issues more comprehensive than just economic welfare. Think about it.
3. You think that Brett Kavanaugh is well outside the main stream of legal thought. The left has skewed the so-called "mainstream" so far to the left that even moderate Republicans are deemed "right wing." Conservative Republicans who believe that the Constitution should be interpreted as it was originally meant and not meant to impose the latest fashionable intellectual trend, are deemed outside the mainstream. This is just liberal ideology banishing opposing thought.
How are we ever going to negotiate on issues if we are bound by ideology?
5
@JAM. No amount of evidence or information can change your beliefs. I wouldn't even try. Good luck!
2
@Big Text
On the contrary, I am always open to a rationale discussion of the issues. I look forward to you presenting me with some more evidence that I can digest. It appears that many of the commentators I read here are dogmatic in their liberal beliefs; Krugman even more so.
Swearing that I'M a plain seeker of truth and YOU'RE just an ideologue is about the oldest trick in the book.
It's not just that a lot of your facts often ain't facts; it's the lazy attempt to pretend that somebody like Steven Breyer doesn't know anything about the Constitution and how to read it.
So cheer away for your hero and his...views. But don't try and lecture me about "original intent," when books and their reading don't work that way, and if they did, we'd have had to do something drastic about what the Famous Founding Fathers intended long, long ago.
Fact is, the Declaration and Constitution are political, politicized documents that articulate a whole range of compromises. They were written by legislative committees that wrangled endlessly, not written down on golden tablets as the Lord spoke. Yes, even the Declaration--from which Jefferson expunged the attacks on slavery, once the slave-owning states got their mitts on the first draft.
Know what the diff is between me tellng you that you're an ideologue and me tellng you the same?
I can back it up. In detail. Precisely. And explain what I am talking about. You're only repeating sentences, words and ideas you got from FOX and whoever.
That's not thinking. That is populist ideology.
2
Perhaps I have lived too long in the very divers economic powerhouse that is California, but the photo accompanying this column grabbed my attention. There are 12 workers in this picture. 100% are white. (The woman is striking in her one-ness.) I do not think there is a workplace in CA where such a photo could be taken. Is this the great divide which is presently haunting our country, and destroying our future as the right wing embraces a demagogue?
5
We have to get away from this idea that there is a Trump "administration" and that there are Trump "policies." Both words suggest a level of organization, planning and intention that doesn't exist in this White House. Not to suggest the danger posed is not consistent, but there are no Trump policies. There is only Trump's outrage at perceived slights, which determines his actions and outbursts at any given moment. He, and everyone around him, is flying by the seat of their pants. We need other words to describe what's going on here.
3
Consider this information on the working class vote from the American National Election Studies data for the 2012 and 2016 elections:
Voted for Obama in 2012 but Trump in 2016:
27.2% working class
13.1% not working class
Did not vote in 2012 but voted for Trump in 2016:
58.2% working class
62.0% not working class
https://www.sociologicalscience.com/download/vol-5/april/SocSci_v5_234to...
1. There is hope in the 27% of working class who voted for Obama in 2012; they must not be right-wing ideologues or racists. Could they be convinced to vote Democratic in 2018 & 2020? I think so with an appealing Democratic candidates who are not viewed as D.C. (corrupt) insiders.
2. Maybe the 58% working class and 62% non-working class folks who did not vote in 2012 but voted for Trump in 2016 are his fun-loving raucous base, who gravitate to Trump for his "bad boy" behavior and who bestows on them the status and permission to act out like party animals. Not sure about this, but one of our Trump-loving younger relatives in the South loves Trump because he is "hilarious."
Trump has empowered those cut-ups & aggrieved workers in many a workplace, and the alienated rejects displaced by the changing job market. I say this on the basis on my early work history in a variety of low-paying jobs.
I am not sure what the interpretation of these data are, but somehow it seems interesting.
2
Trump should have resigned and gone to jail by now in a country that consistently applies its laws to all citizens. He is guilty of treason in helsinki.his tariffs are destroying small businesses.some are days away from shutting down and sendin thousands of workers home.strangely some of the workers still back him though his blackmaiing and bullying china is not working. They know that US companies are heavily dependant on them and are digging in their heels. The economy is heading for a recession in 2019 or 2020
2
The fact is that more than half the GOP supports Trump. Only a few brave souls like George Will, Max Boot and Steve Schmidt oppose him.
What makes Trump possible is the abolition of the fairness doctrine and the consequent rise of Fox News. Trump supporters at his rallies admit they only watch Fox. Unlimited financing by Billionaires thanks to Citizens United is another factor.
And the Democrats have the wrong attitude, from calling Trump’s fans “deplorables” to Joe Manchin voting for Gorsuch. They too are financed by Wall Street.
In a civilized country both Trump and Pence would have been removed from office by now. The low-key grandstanding of the moderate left against Trump is sheer hypocrisy. Powerful interests are content to keep Trump in the White House.
If Trump succeeds in packing the Supreme Court with corporate toadies like Kavanaugh we will be living in a militaristic authoritarian regime financed by a plutocracy. The correct term for that is not “populism”, but something much more fantastic, fabulous and fascinating. You know what I mean.
3
The big question is not whether Trump is not a populist - he's not - he's clearly an elitist delivering the goods for the wealthy - but his blue collar followers believe he's behind them.
That's actually the question of the past decade or so. Why middle America voters consistently vote for people who's policies hurt them?
The question is just more poignant now.
2
The entire structure of the U.S. government system has doomed us. The most successful areas of the country are where people are moving, and the least successful areas are where people are leaving. Our government, however, is set up exactly the opposite. Those from rural areas that are failing, and where people are fleeing, have MORE power in Congress and the Electoral College. This ultimately means the economic losers will be dictating the rules for the economic winners. Hardly a recipe for continued success.
2
Call him a demagogue which is what he is.
Also call the right-wingers and reactionaries what they are - conservatives they are not.
2
Krugman says Trump is not a populist because he is really NOT helping ordinary workers. Well, it just happens today’s headlines show unemployment rates at record lows, especially for African Americans and Hispanics. Humm, seems like a lot of ordinary people are being lifted by Trump. Sorry to point to this Inconvenient fact. Or maybe Krugman is just enhibiting a symptom of Trump Derangement Syndrome
1
Well, it's certainly true that American populists are very good at getting their devotees to chant their lines again and again, withut stopping.
1
DT hates American workers. It’s obvious by every action he takes. So, why do working class people continue to believe in him, and, more importantly, protect him from criticism? It’s a mystery I can’t begin to solve.
2
If Trump is so bad for working people, why do so many of them love him so? He is definitely a populist.
2
I have never viewed Trump as a populist. Trump is more of an anarchist to me. He wants to destroy our democracy.
2
"Populist" is a term, like "liberal", that has been so abused in common usage that it needs to be retired. ("Liberal" seems to be giving way to "progressive".) "Populist", going back to the Latin, meant from or about the people, which would seem to be a good thing, the opposite of plutocracy. But the elites twisted populism to mean anarchy, mob rule. So, today, is populism a good thing or a bad thing? Is a "government of the people, by the people, for the people" a good thing or is it mob rule?
2
"Trump, the self-proclaimed champion of American workers" Yeah, right. He hired foreign, mostly undocumented workers from Eastern Europe to build Trump Tower here in NYC, then threatened to turn them in to immigration authorities when they protested his failure to pay them the agreed-upon wages. This has been well known for years, and well-documented. But you can shout this from the rooftops, and the majority of American workers still buy his "populist" self-designation, and will do so even after he is kicked out of office. In the end, they are the truly SAD.
5
What's the point of this column? All these NYT columnists preach to the choir. You don't have to tell me what the weather is outside my office, because I was just out there.
We have image in America. Trump projects the image of "us against them" and that's enough for him to win 60 million votes. The anti-Trumpsters need to get off their butts and vote in the same percentage as the Trumpsters. Then he will lose and so will the party that supports him. That's the only question: will the anti-Trumpsters vote in the same percentage as the Trumpsters? The answer is: they won't because they don't care enough about any of this. They don't read the NYT; heck, they don't read anything except their phone screens.
2
As the leftist darling, James Carville once said, "it's the economy stupid " and Klugman and the rest of you leftists don't get. You are all bitterly angry that dumpy Hillary lost, you simply cannot let go. You are a bunch of spoiled brats who are going to hold your breath and stomp your feet until you get your way. Get over it! The economy is growing faster than it ever did under Osama. The people I speak to, are very optimistic, there is an unbelievable amount of new, commercial construction happening in my town which is a signal that builders, bankers and businesses are anticipating future growth. Yet all of you Trump haters want to destroy the current Presidency and take away prosperity and opportunity from people like me who were shunned by the Osama administration. Shut up and get out of the way, some of us are busy working here.
You know, if you'd scream a little less loudly, your eyes wouldn't squeeze shut and you'd be able to read the stats saying that so far, Trump still hasn't equally the two best quarters of GDP growth between 2012 and 2016, or beat Obama's average job numbers, or raised wages more.
1
As about half the country recognized from day one... Putin's Puppet is a con artist... He uses populist (and misogynistic and racist) rhetoric to keep his base happy while pursuing policies that enrich himself, his family, and his cronies.
3
I'm not sure who Mr Krugman make up the populus but there pages missing in his recourse. Since Trump became president, the economy has grown to 4.1%. Unemployment is the lowest in decades. For African Americans and there youth as well as Hispanics the lowest ever. Yes, "ever" times three. Employment of the handicap had been dropping before Trump. Now they are up 7-11 %. . As far as Obamacare goes, Mr. Krugman may think people forget that premiums were 17-28 % Hostility towards A family cost in 2010 from $426 to $1021 through the first two months of 2017. Deductibles rose in the same time period from $ 4321 to $8362. Obamacare may have a significant part of Trump's victory in some states. . Retirement funds benefitted by the 5000 increase in the DOW. Mr Krugman falls back on name calling Trump. He is not alone in the name calling business. Melania has been called a hooker by one reporter. A Politico reporter ' called CNN haters at Trump rally ‘garbage people’ with bad teeth' . Now we hear of a Senate candidate called Melania a "Hoebag.". Ivanka has been called a crude name and Barron was called autistic. Can you imagine what response the NYT would have if Obama's family were called these names. If Mr. Krugman stuck with information instead of name calling, at least that would be of value.
2
It is certainly common for clever and wealthy crooks to spout a populist line in order to pick the pockets of the poorly-educated and semi-literate, yes.
1
AMEN TO THIS! Some of the best, most nation-changing for the better heroes of American history have been populist, progressive or both. Trump is neither, he's a psychiatric disorder, like Hitler. As my history professor use to say, in his Oxford lilt: "The only thing we have learned from history is that we HAVEN'T learned from history."
2
Corporal Bonespurs is a huckster and a fraud. A stupid mans PT Barnum. He’s a con man, a crook, a serial philanderer and a narcissist. He’s dumb, willfully ignorant and incurious. This makes him an incompetent boob at all he does beside golf, which he reportedly cheats at mightily. So, unless the republicans choose country over party or the electorate actually speaks out, we are doomed to suffer a modern day NERO, with a bad haircut.
4
There’s no discussion of corporate culture in promoting republican policies. I know a number of those who work in the oil and gas industry in the western states. They hold back development before elections when a Democrat is in office yet if you look at the facts, the highest oil/gas employment was in 2014. It is automation (fracking, directional/horizontal drilling technology of new fields finds that killed a lot of those jobs). I hear all the time from these people what a great job this idiot is doing. I say just wait.
3
This obvious aberration of nature in a WH is no populist, instead he's a brutal assault on everybody sense of common decency.
He is the real enemy of the people.
Through history the term been used by every dictator and autocrat going as far back as Roman Empire, Nero was declared the enemy of the people by the Roman Senate, during French revolution "Reign of Terror," by the Third Reich's rule in Germany, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels comes to mind, who proclaimed Jews "a sworn enemy of the German people"...
it got picked up and wildly spread by Joseph Stalin during the early years of the Soviet Union.
and on and on... the most recent years, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez also called political dissenters "enemies of the homeland."
What follows are unavoidable and terrible consequences ..population unrest, bloody conflicts, nations vs. nations, forceful crackdowns on any opposition, journalist imprisoning and more ugliness all around the world.
The urgency to act now is overwhelming and all the red lights are light up.
Say what you will, we are in full-blown crisis.
3
Krugman at one time was apparently a known and respected economist. Shame, that now he is only a shill for the Demoncrat Party and its propaganda mill. The arguments given here about Judge Kavanaugh echo the frantic and empty claims of Crying Chuck Schumer and are without merit.
1
Trump knows that his base is stupid. He is consciously exploiting their stupidity -- he has admitted as much. His objective is to further the interests of his own class: the ruling rich class, the inhereted-a-fortune-from-daddy class, the never-worked-an-honest-day-in-his-entire-life class. And his base is so stupid, they don't see this. Even if they did, they wouldn't care. They believe that brown and LGBT and non-Christian people are the cause of all of their economic ills, not their bosses, not the ruling rich class.
2
Fascists would be the most accurate term---one which the media should start using.
3
Adolf Hitler was a populist, and he was certainly not good for the people. Well, he was for a good portion of it, after he got their votes based on nationalism, then added socialism (heavy public subsidies to support his voters). I think it's time to call Trump a national socialist -- and with the stupidity of his regime and voters, the term might soon catch on.
2
You know this.
I know this.
But the millions of ugly, hate-filled, illiterate and just plain stupid people in this country who voted the Republican Party and Trump into power — and who are thus completely and eagerly responsible for their baby-stealing, immigrant-torturing, minority and gender subjugating ways — aren’t reading the New York Times.
So, we’re talking to ourselves. Completely falling for the daily Trump Distraction Show, while the GOP loots, pilfers, steals, robs this country blind, and looks for every way possible to inflict suffering on all its citizens, and destroy what few shreds of dignity this country has left in the eyes of the world.
Even nature itself recoils with revulsion at what these monsters are capable of.
But no, not the Trump supporters. They embrace it all and shriek for more, reminding us of nothing less than the orcs of Tolkien’s world, fictional stand-ins for the hordes of ignorance upon which Nazism last raised its bloody legs.
And we bear the last responsibility, knowing better, yet choosing to do nothing about it except name call and complain online to each other in social media.
And so, our own weakness in retaliation is the ultimate failure.
Think about that.
2
Populist, no. A White Nationalist, perhaps. A dishonest man who favors America’s adversaries, yes.
3
Krugman is still employed - after dozens of times being proved incorrect and biased? Shameful.
3
Stop comparing the Liar-in-Chief to Bernie Sanders. Sanders is a social Democrat, which many are just realizing is good for them, and our country. He ran as a populist, but behaves like a facsist. His supporters drank the kool-aid, and now function as political, and social zombies.
2
Sigh. Sanders actually is pretty much a classic American populist, whch isn't a bad thing necessarily. But if you think Americans are gonna elect a socialist President, you are trippin'.
2
Why don’t Democrats abolish ICE ?
A populist
to those he's fooled;
a fabulist
is how he's ruled.
But every "fable"
that he's spoke
is just a "lie"...
to common folk.
The fabulous fabulist
President Trump:
Lies so ridiculous
even a chump
couldn't believe
the dumb lies he drools,
the Fabulous Fabulist
Fibber of Fools.
2
Then I guess Krugman would call Obama a welfare-populist? You know, the one's that are always feeding off my wallet even in an era of "beyond full employment"?
I don't care what he is:
- The economy is booming.
- Somebody finally has the stones to take on China, the EU and Nato Countries.
- Taxes are lowered.
- Cops are supported against thugs and the CNN machine.
And most importantly Hillary isn't around!
And let me ask three questions my leftist friends:
1. Why didn't Democrats fix ObamaCare when they still had majorities?
2. Why over the past 20 years, when Democrats had majorities and even super-majorities and the White House, didn't they fix immigration? Why? Because they don't care about about those people any more than Trump does. Its just a game of vote pandering to Democrats!
3. Why didn't Obama stop Russia in 2016 ????
You're all nothing but hypocrites!
See you in 2020.
2
Donald Trump is the re-incarnation of Huey Long
2
Populist, Natavist, Classist, White Nationalist , Fascist, Racist or Narcissist? Unfortunately, the word that matters most is President.
I haven't giving much thought about Trump being a Populist, never used that word much. However, when I do think of Trump, unfortunately every hour, I think of a pathological lying mad man, an ignorant, stupid person.
This is where Celebrity worshipping has taken us. Sad, frightening.
3
Do we think when all the white guys in their 70's finally have the decency to die off that we can stop pretending the 1950's were the best time to be alive? (And I ask this as a white guy in his 60's, with relatively few illusions about how great the 1960's were.) (Oh, except for the Beatles and the Dick Van Dyke Show. They were both awesome.)
1
Amen!
Trump is a populist, as is every totalitarian leader. Adolf Hitler was a populist. He got elected on his nationalist propaganda, then added socialism to appease his voter. So does Trump now and will expect to hear more "emergency" packages for his voters. Trump is morphing into a national-socialist without his regime or voters noticing. Time to call him just that?
1
The Trump apologists below are despicable. They willfully ignore treason for a few extra bucks in their pocket while our energy grid is being attacked, our infrastructure is crumbling, we have sky-high deficits, and we have a racist grifter in the White House.
4
Also, stop calling Trump and his radical right supporters "conservative". They are hell bent on destroying our democracy, our economy, and our earth. They are doing their utmost to plunge us into war and dictatorship. Quite the opposite of conserving anything.
3
Trump is a traitor who will end up in prison. His voters are not the sharpest tools in the shed.
PROSECUTE RUSSIAGATE!
3
Wake up America. Donald Trump is a Manchurian Candidate.
2
Bernie was right, dems became the party of the rich. Krugman, the "working man" you think you know, voted for Trump for a reason.
3.9% unemployment, "strong economy" for the first time since 2006. Wages rising. Boom, boom, boom.
It's working, he's winning, so sorry.
For an entire year before the 2016 election, Paul Krugman preached to his audience in print and on many TV appearances that a Trump presidency would crater the economy, not just in the US but all around the world. PK ignored the news of a 4.1% GDP growth and he offers no explanation as how he got Trump and his economic policies so wrong.
Krugman has paid no consequence for being completely off-base with his doom-and-gloom predictions. For his followers, though they don't seem to care that Krugman's Trump Derangement Syndrome blinds him to reason and dictates his coverage of the President.
McKinley had overall good relations with organized labor, appointed several major Labor figures to his administration, endorsed the Erdman Act which Labor supported, and had cordial relations with Samuel Gompers. Labor approved of his tariffs and the exclusion of Chinese workers from the US. He initially approved of bi-metallism, which included silver as a basis for currency, which was certainly a populist position, though rejection by other governments led him to base US currency on a gold standard. He was a gentleman, was described as "sweet", something nobody would accuse Trump of. He opposed, though not nearly vigorously enough, the Southern movement to disenfranchise blacks; he denounced lynching and appointed many blacks to office (though fewer than hoped for), and rejected regulations barring blacks from military service during the spanish american war. I'm not sure why you call McKinley the quintessential Gilded Age President; Teddy Roosevelt, his Vice President who succeeded him after he was assassinated, is certainly renowned for his reforms, and he did not radically depart from the agendas McKinley supported.
1
Trump is not a populist, if only for the fact that he has no one's interest at heart but his own. How so many people could accept his blustering rants as a coherent promise to be a good leader completely escapes me. How Trump thought he could pull this off also completely escapes me. How it just might happen, and he be elected for a second term also, is absolutely unfathomable. Thank you, Dr. Krugman, for continuing to do the work of intelligently warning people of the pitfalls we face if Trumpism goes forward. I am also grateful to all the letter writers that bring out further arguments against Trump. Compared to the handful of letter writers that seem only interested in not rocking whatever economic boat they are in, most letter writers are concerned about our prospects as a free, moral country where all can live in peace. The philosophy, if it is one, of I've got mine, who cares about you is not a good way to run a country.
2
Power and wealth are what drive Trump. The populists were an insurgent political outgrowth of the depression ridden US economy. Now Ross Perot is called a populist. The connection of billionaires and average person eludes me. Trump takes it to another level, a person who is anti populist, labeled a populist. Populism seems more now to mean 2nd amendment people and white anger driven evangelical Christianity.
2
His presentation is to use words as playthings, to render facts meaningless, as he hones in on and feeds his base's visceral side. He is a master at it. I think we all live with annoying, unresolved political or cultural issues, that when they surface, trigger visceral, emotional, beyond logic or facts responses. That's where he lives, activating those areas.
A couple of remedies. Give him less or briefer coverage (less oxygen). Show how many people are at his rallies. "Look at this crowd, more than,,,, they won't show the crowd". Well, there were a mere 10,000 people at the at Wilkes Barre. Profile the crowd, % white, age range, gender. Calls his lies lies.
Don't give up.
3
Duh!
But unfortunately for our country, it takes Krugman to be the lone voice saying so (did I say "lone voice? yes. tragically.).
BTW, what about "conservatives?" There's nothing "conservative" about these people. They are right wing extremists and radicals. Viewing them in another country, in another context, no one would be foolish enough to misname them "conservative." Let's call them exactly the type of extremists they are.
6
ALL members of Congress should be alarmed that despite losing the popular election, Trump cobbled enough troubled working class Americans in former Democratic strongholds to win the election by our unique geographical distribution method of electing our Presidents. Trump for the Republicans in Congress is a warm body. In order to get the bible thumpers he had to tell them that he would pick justices who would overturn progress that has been made over the decades on social issues. Mitch McConnell made his ability to select Gorsuch happen. As far as the tax cuts are concerned, the GOP just needed a warm body in the White House to get that legislation signed and it has every sign of further bankrupting the country. What the GOP in Congress is afraid of is his inane tweets and if they go up against him, he will call them out and he will drive them out of office by tweet. His populism such as it is is only 30-35% of the Country, that's not popular by any stretch of the imagination. The sad situation is if Mueller finds enough evidence to impeach him, would we be better off with the off kilter and bizarre Pence. Probably not. What we can best hope for is the following, Dems win Congress by enough votes to stop Trump's stupidity and put enough pressure via inquiries to stop the radically bad executive orders that are going on behind the scenes with our environment and our diplomacy, essentially knee cap him and make him a lame duck. Then in 2020 vote him out.
3
I don't like using extremes, but if Fascism is defined as the merging of industry with government, then by his policies, what is Trump...?
2
Trump should not be described as a populist.
He fits all criteria of a fascist and that word should be used.
The general public needs to be educated on the meaning of that word and the dangers of being seduced by what they consider a charismatic champion of their rights. Their children and grandchildren will suffer most from this movement, that fact needs to be addressed.
His rallies under the guise of endorsements for Republican canidates are becoming more frightening, volitile and frenzied, no policy is addressed. It was shocking seeing the anger and threatening behavior towards Acosta in Florida. Sarah Sanders reaction to his question if she thought, "The press was an ememy of the people", confirms the Administration,despite being reminded the world is watching, view their positions as personal. They not acting in the best interests of the American people.
To the press....begin to refer to Trump, the Administration and his Republican supporters who have thwarted the Muellar investigation into a foreign country interfering with the 2016 elections as the FACISTS they choose to be at the expense of Democracy.
It is time to stand up and fight with justified facts against the destruction this nation has endured and prevent further.
2
Good, they deserve it. His base deserves everything they get from their hero. He's not a populist and neither are they. Just ignorant, hateful people who are responsible for their own misery but can't see it because he lets them feel like it's not their fault, they're victims of some sort of dark conspiracy.
They're not but they are determined to try and make the rest of us as miserable as they are. That won't happen and after the mid-terms they can sink back into the slime from where they came knowing they've built a bright future for their children with trillion dollar deficits, no health care, crippling student debt, climate change disasters etc. etc.
Thanks!
5
If we understand history we have seen this act before. Its currently playing in a loop somewhere in the world. An ignorant loudmouth who is intent on destroying the world or there own individual country. Look no further than World War 1, 2 Look to Cuba, Venezuela who lives in poverty and who is in the mansion.
Our current loud mouth wants to be a dictator and is worried that his past behavior will lead to his forced resignation. He is the person who charted his own destiny and now he needs to own his mistakes. I suppose Trump didn't really understand who Roy Cohen was and when he had a chance to be with Roy Cohen when he was dying from HIV , Trump chose to pretend he didn't know him. Enough said about the character of the current occupant of the white house.
Where are the missing children Mr. President
4
And let us start calling him a Russian Agent/Asset! It's "hiding in plain view" America, no doubt about it.
2
Trump and his supporters underscore the loss of a moral compass in America. The country's ugly dark side has taken over.
3
“And his administration has been relentlessly anti-worker on every front.”
Contrast Trump’s message to the American workers with his erstwhile opponent.
Trump: We’re going to stop manufacturing jobs from going overseas, we’re going to stop China from dumping cheap goods that bankrupt our domestic companies. We believe in you. We believe in trying.
Opponent: Get over it. Your jobs aren’t coming back. Put down your opioids, learn coding, leave Appalachia, and move to Silicon Valley where the jobs are. And by the way, we’re bringing in a million more H-1B’s to drive down wages in case you actually learn coding.
Hmm. Tough choice.
2
Your example is certainly true, but the lesson drawn from it may vary. Our method of electing our leaders is stupid. We don't really need two years of campaigning. It really shouldn't matter how riled up a rally gets, how many state fairs a candidate visits, or even how many 15 second commercials/sound bites the PACs put out. We should be looking for policy depth and relevant experience. It is unlikely to change because too many people get rich off the process, but it does not serve us well.
What I draw from your example is Trump promised the right things, but never intended to implement (see his history of stiffing contractors) while Hillary gave some realistic advice about looking forward to find employment in new fields, and she would have done her best to implement.
1
Oh, I dunno. Some of his promises don’t seem so hollow.
“Over the past year through July, U.S. manufacturing added 327,000 jobs, the most of any 12-month period since April 1995, when the figure added a healthy 345,000 positions.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/03/job-gains-for-the-manufacturing-industry...
Excellent column and spot on. Trump is not a populist, he’s a fascist, an ethno-nationalist supporting big business.
But there’s really good news added at the bottom. David Brooks is off.
3
Definition of a populist: "a member of a political party claiming to represent the common people"; "a believer in the rights, wisdom, or virtues of the common people"
In a definitional sense, a true populist was Wisconsin's Robert La Follette (WI governor; Senator, House rep.; ran for president in 1924), described as: "a proponent of progressivism and a fierce opponent to corporate power." La Follette did fight for the people's interest his entire political life.
Donald J. Trump appeared intriguing amidst 12-17 GOP establishment primary contenders and against establishment H. Clinton, because he presented himself as an outspoken/rude outsider and convinced voters being politically inexperienced was an asset. No member of the establishment He!
But unlike La Follette, Trump is a bait-and-switch con artist, who campaigned as a populist, but betrays his promises and governs (if you can call it that) as an elitist.
Like another infamous fascist in history, Trump carries out the ruse of being a populist and champion the people (white people only) with his obnoxious, crude rallies, where he encourages his base to let fly and sock it to the "fake news" press, esp. CNN.
So La Follette was a progressive populist, while Trump is a phony manipulative demagogic populist whose political words pander to the working class but whose actions greatly help rich elites, Wall St. & big financial fraudsters, and the biggest polluters.
Will his base figure this out?
5
Agree. Completely.
Good for you Paul. Somebody that understands the english language. The media has misused the term "populist" for some time. The media has called every right wing dictator want to be a populist. spanky and those people are about as much a populist as peter the great.
2
Answer: he's counting on their inherent racism trumping (pardon the pun) the economic interests of his followers.
2
The "liberal" media is regularly complicit in perpetuating right-wing messaging: the Clintons and Obama--three people from lower-middle class backgrounds who through their own efforts worked their ways up--were "elitists," while Dubya and this current "president"--white men who were born into wealth and have enjoyed every extreme entitlement afforded their race, class and gender--are "just like us." Max Clelland and John Kerry--decorated war veterans--became cowards to Dick Cheney's five draft deferments. How? Framing, language, repetition and omission. During the campaign, this "president," proudly displaying his Seven Deadly Sins good conduct badge becomes a "christian," while Clinton, an actual practicing--in deed and faith--Methodist, was repeatedly labled by right-wingers as "demonic" and "anti-Christian" and the "liberal" media repeated the lie. "Liberal" media are terrified of the "bias" accusation, so they bend over backwards to message for the right-wing, and the right-wing just laughs and laughs because the false accusation works.
4
So how can a liberal celebrated 'expert' on economics be this naive? In 2 short years President Trump (NYT writers have a hard time with that...) has given more opportunity to the blue collar worker than in the last 16 years. You need a job? Go to Texas; they have jobs paying between $100-120k a year for high school education. And get this; if you are at all motivated, many of these oil field and related companies will train you, their dime, to weld, pipe fit, etc and then your earning power goes straight up. But don't tell the truth, Paul, you have to let your political hate get in the way of reality and common sense. The whole country is booming and the better it gets the louder the whin from the left. Go Donald! GDP 5%; who'd thought?!!
4
@Kevin - Fact: Under President Obama, America became the world’s largest oil producer, surpassing Saudi Arabia. Fact: Fact: Under President Obama the natural gas fracking boom occurred. Trump is riding on the coattails of the Obama presidency but for some inexplicable reason, his followers think the economy started in 2016. Their inability to recall even recent history is disturbing.
2
A more apt name for him is Anarchist. He seems to want to blow up things for no rhyme or reason. There is an amazing well of pentup grievance in him that finds expression in his rallies, tweets and contradictory and haphazard actions.
3
He has a reason: Putin told him to blow the world's liberal democracy up.
2
Trump is an unhinged demagogue who is no longer even bothering to occupy his time doing what Presidents are required to do to lead the nation, keep us safe, and insure domestic tranquility. He is in permanent campaign mode, which we are paying for with our tax dollars, and if anyone bothers to watch him in action, you cannot help but conclude that Trump has gone off the deep end.
3
Keep it simple: attack the Republic Party not voters. Immigration is a phoney click bait issue staged by Putin, Trump and the GOP.
Focus on who the republicans really serve, beside themselves. Certainly not the Base. It’s just a coalition of resentment and it didn’t just happen, it’s a project, like Brexit, but whose project?
For the answer, just look at what Trump and the party are doing: attempting to turn government into a funnel to move wealth offshore, away from taxes, away from the people, meanwhile creating a blizzard of distraction to cover it up.
Next, focus on Fearless Leader, who represents money without national affiliation or loyalty; yes big MAGA man. The Russians found him offshore in the same laundry they use. The Russians and the Base made this floundering con President, a scud propelled by the vacuum of an empty mind, low rodent cunning, a foul mouth and a terror of the truth, which chases him constantly like Capn. Hook’s croc.
Stay on that.
Show how Putin plays his hand coolly, with a laser focus on the GOP as America’s point of maximum vulnerability, turning it's corruption into the realization of Joe McCarthy’s paranoid vision, a body infested, a cosmic joke. Hello Maria Butina.
Sort out differences later.
There is a job to be done and it's more than Trump: it’s time to break the Republican Party with the weight of a massive majority. It can be done. The numbers are there.
No more minority rule! That's what the coming elections are about.
2
I agree with what I read lately in a French media that "Trump belongs to the post fascist era". He certainly is a white nationalist. And yes, he is extremely anti labor. He is also totally racist and sexist. And yes, this LIAR IN CHIEF "likes to humiliate others in ways great and small". How could the American people possibly elect such a president who runs the US like he was running his business intimidating people and using lies as a weapon . Although in France Hillary Clinton with 3 million more votes, would have been elected ( and I do not consider the French model a good model)
2
Trump is the best! He said so himself. Actually, he is the best con man his contingent has ever witnessed. While he's entertaining his crowd with his right hand, he's signing executive orders with his left hand fleecing those same people. Behind him, his henchmen and women are busy lying daily, destroying the environment, helping him undermine our international standing, watching the invasion of our election system with glee, putting poor and disadvantaged people in further jeopardy, demolishing everything President Obama stood for, all the while getting richer and richer. And his crowd loves it. He's the best circus act in the biggest ring under the biggest tent in the world!
4
Proposed alt-title: “Stop Calling Trump a Populist --- or thinking Emperor Trump knows anything about Economics”
Just because Emperor Trump is provably an 'Empire-building' and “Empire-Thinking” crony capitalist scam-artist, 'posing' as someone who knows anything about political-economics --- don't believe a word he says.
Paul, you conclude: “Which brings me back to media use of the term “populist.” When you describe Trump using that word, you are in effect complicit in his lie — especially when you do it in the context of supposedly objective reporting.
And you don’t have to do this. You can describe what Trump is doing without using words that give him credit where it isn’t due. He’s scamming his supporters; you don’t have to help him do it."
But, Paul, you, as the Nobel prize winning political economist and 'go to guy' of our “Times” --- when so obviously, as Dylan sang, “the 'Times' they are a changin” --- write that 'we the non-economist people of America' really need to “Stop Calling Trump Populist” --- then wouldn't you agree that 'we the people' should also stop saying (or thinking) that Emperor Trump is any kind of economic expert, or objective journalist, or health-care analyst, or geopolitical genius when it comes (as it must) to unwrapping, exposing, and ending this dangerous time of potential world ending wars or environmental collapse which could so easily occur in this age of an Emperor running a disguised Empire.
None of us are guilty, just fooled.
2
Calling Trump a populist is like calling Kim Kardashian a thespian.
4
How about plutogogue?
2
Woody Guthrie was a populist...Donald Trump is a vulture. Just in case you needed a condensed version of this article.
9
Yeah, you know I love you - but the important part is they don't know it.
This is the ugly - and it makes me sick - can it be true that my people are more connected to racism, xenophobia, misogyny than thinking things through?
3
Teddy Roosevelt was a populist and an ultra moral one at that. If he were alive today he’d take the obscene Trump into a dark alley and punch him into applesauce.
3
Trump is a fascist. He is ideologically akin to Mussolini, probably most of all, but also Hitler, Franco and the clique of South American dictators who politely avoided openly claiming the title of fascist (while enthusiastically embracing the rest of the ideology) in order to avoid drawing the ire of a United States then still-cognizant that fascism was a greater evil even than communism.
How Trump appears "populist" is presciently and almost scientifically described by Umberto Ecco:
"selective populism, a qualitative populism, one might say... individuals as individuals have no rights, and the People is conceived as a quality, a monolithic entity expressing the Common Will. Since no large quantity of human beings can have a common will, the Leader pretends to be their interpreter... citizens do not act; they are only called on to play the role of the People. Thus the People is only a theatrical fiction... There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People."
This was written in 1995. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1995/06/22/ur-fascism/
The Times beat the Iraq War drum with everyone else in 2003. Scant months later, the media pretended that "we had all" been duped. "No one could have known!" Many of us did know, and indeed the (lack of) merit of the war was obvious.
This is very similar. Believe your eyes and believe your ears. We are in grave peril.
4
"2018 Trumpistan is comprised of the spiritual descendants of Confederate soldiers hellbent on raising their neo-Confederate flag high in the air as General Trump leads them over the White Cliffs of Fear and Loathing."
I buy that, but you understate the situation.
There exists an identifiable and strong ideological thread between our Confederacy and 30's Germany which still persists today.
It's not beyond imagining that we could have fought on a different side in WWII.
Trump has maliciously and recklessly stepped into that space that sane presidents have feared to tread, led by an out of control id and an unquenchable ego.
Imagine if Trump had been president instead of FDR.
We're at a political Defcon 3 moment, and that may be somewhat optimistic.
We're way beyond the point of Johnson's famous aphorism, this is soul shaking, uncharted territory that we are about to enter.
2
"Kavanaugh ... his support for unrestricted presidential power ..."
Correction here: "unrestricted _Republican_ presidential power" In the same ways deficits only matter under Democrats, I'm sure limits on presidential powers will only matter in that case as well.
96
@Odo Klem
Trump is mentally ill; ergo unfit to serve...
Amendment 25: Section 4...read this and then reply
2
@Odo Klem
Yes. When he was working for Starr he wrote that one lie was sufficient for impeachment. Now he believes a president may not be indicted at all, and is above the rule of law.
2
This is what “the dismantling of the administrative state”, which is what Steve Bannon told the world was the purpose of the Trump administration, looks like.
All the agencies that are responsible for the health and safety of the public, whether as consumers, as workers, or as citizens undermined with the appointment of people who’s chief interest in destroying those agencies.
No longer is there going to be anyone to protect air and water quality, ensure that the food supply is safe, that workers safety is protected, that the financial industry doesn’t deceive its clients and that larger businesses don’t crush their smaller competitors. And anyone can print a plastic gun.This isn’t populism, this is sheer chaos. Everyone is on their own. Good luck.
4
Trump ran as a populist, as Democrats have been known to do. Hillary, if you recall, was sounding like quite the populist as the election neared, offering watered-down versions of Sanders' policies on minimum wage, college tuition and jobs programs.
No one in their right minds took either of the candidate's populist campaign rhetoric seriously, which explains why more people stayed home than voted for either phony populist.
And I see Krugman is still talking about ACA as if it is a populist program. ACA has reached 50% approval in polls, briefly, three times in its history. It is anything but popular - but it could have been had Obama not caved on the public plan.
2
Obama could've gotten the few ConservaDems in the Senate's votes... how?
1
Great column.
The problem is that it doesn't matter. This is politics.
The economy is growing, people are feeling better off.
Be ready for a second term.
1
@Dave
Don't think so.
1
Disagree. To see he's a populist is to acknowledge his support among a large number of working class people who see in him less of a policy maker and more of a hero, who's able to put their dreams and aspirations in symbolic form.
For example, most seem to understand on some level that the wall he advocates it's not a tangible object, but a metaphorical barrier between them and the modern world of a global economy and peoples of color.
1
A populist is not a crook.
"Populist" Trump should be generous to the "poorly educated" that he so dearly loves by sending them all grocery I.D. cards with his photo on it. That way he can let them eat cake and remember him for his kindness to the working class - that is no longer working.
3
Whether or not Trump is a populist depends on how you define populist. If you define populist as serving the interests of average citizens against the elite, then you are right that Trump is not a populist. However, if you define populist as directing one's pitch to the average citizen as opposed to the elites, then Trump is a populist, and whether what he peddles to those average citizens is snake oil is irrelevant to his populism.
1
Trump is not a populist and never has been one. His appeal has never been about populism, even though, as Mr. Krugman points out; he and the media have branded him one. Mr. Trump's appeal I believe has nothing to with populism either for himself or his supporters. It is slick marketing.
Mr. Trump's appeal is to people who are angry, distrustful and have decided their woes lie with the government. In him they have found an ally who has racist tendencies, or believes the government is evil, or that internationalism has created their economic struggles.
Mr. Krugman is correct. The media must stop assisting Mr. Trump in his 'populist' branding efforts. Mr. Trump must be called out for his actions; actions far removed from populism.
3
Republicans used to say that the ever professorial Obama “demagogued”the issues —using the verb but not the noun. Trump, of course, deserves the noun. When he not watching TV, tweeting or playing golf, he is holding rallies and firing up the mob. The only thing between him and an authoritarian state is the scaffolding of a civil society—a scaffolding that he assails daily. The press and the judiciary are still holding, but this assault on the fundamentals of democracy is deeply disturbing. Eventually he will be consigned to the dustbin of history, but the real question is how lasting will the damage be.
1
Thank you Mr. Krugman,
Journalists' use of the word populist has been driving me crazy since Trump began his campaign. The word has been used to describe everyone from the Socialist, Democratic Party, US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and left leaning Mexican President elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to the islamist, authoritarian, president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the drug addict-murdering President of Philippines Rodrigo Duterte. I usually don't know what journalists mean when they use the word populist and I'm not always convinced they know themselves.
It seems to me that journalists often use the word populist to avoid using some other word that would be more accurate, but perhaps, more inflammatory, like nationalist, authoritarian, anti-immigrant, or fascist. The connection between Trump and Hugo Chavez if any, is not populism, it's authoritarianism. The connection between Trump and Boris Johnson is not populism, it's nationalism, protectionism, anti-immigration, and frankly, xenophobia and racism.
The use of the word populist instead of these other, more pointed and accurate terms is deeply misleading. I agree with Mr. Krugman that the use of the word to describe Trump works to propagate Trump's lie that he is fighting for the working man, and I thank Mr. Krugman, for publishing this opinion. I would go even further and urge journalists to purge the word populist from their vocabularies and use more precise and meaningful words.
5
@Niki: ', it's nationalism, protectionism, anti-immigration, and frankly, xenophobia and racism.'
Well, yeah. Because historically, populist movements have adopted such stances to varying degrees.
So, so many heated comments on this string by 'progressives' or 'liberals' or whatever they're calling themselves this week, who have never done any reading of history or political science about populist phenomena and movements, but who like the sound of the word 'populist' and want to redefine it to suit themselves.
Trump is a populist. Hitler, Jesus, Father Coughlin, Huey Long, Hugo Chavez, George Wallace, Ross Perot, the Ku Klux Klan - populist movements. 'Populism' is not necessarily a good thing. More often than not, it is a bad thing, or winds up being so even if it begins positively.
I could spend all day rebutting and providing background and citations and recommendations of source materials, but why bother? One hallmark of 'populism' is its disdain for educated elites and its faith in the inherent 'wisdom' of the average guy, great unwashed, regular Joe, etc.
1
Good news. They're the minority. Bad news, they've been captured by a craven party that manipulates them and their grievances, which are entirely what drives them. And it's a party that also and especially manipulates and abuses our sometimes outdated electoral laws and traditions for their own power and eventual debasement of its base.
But he loves the poorly educated. Yeah.
4
I enjoy reading the comments here once in a while and am always amazed at the cliches and group think expressed. Donald Trump is doing a great job with the economy and is helping the working people of America. Paul Krugman has been wrong all along about the economic effects of a Trump presidency. Look at his past articles the last 18 months. Yet, many of you who make comments seem to revere him like he is the Oracle of Delphi. I don't think so.
2
@Bill Jones
Cliche story and group think eh?
“Donald Trump is doing a great job with the economy”
My my my.
1
Speaking of cliches and group think, how come you guys can't make the simplest statement without saying exactly the same things? I mean, there's ALWAYS the same guff: economy, regular people, lib'ruls worshipping, yadayada.
Never any details. How exactly did Trump create this economy, and what'll we pay for it? Which regular folks exactly does he speak for? Don't us libs often tell Krugman he's wrong?
Are WE the ones who run the sick-makng Cabinet meetings, with grown women and men staring at Trump adoringly? Do WE run rallies and scream that the Press is, "the enemy of the People," while a crowd in logo t-shirts and MAGA hats cheers deliriously? Are WE the guys who tell the obvious lies, and can't stop demeaning and threatening people?
Not saying we're never wrong. The mistakes go on forever. But...
1
After watching Trump’s recent rally in Tampa, I’ve lost all hope in this country‘s future.
5
American English is a purely democratic language. Unlike legal English or the English used among biologists, no one is in charge. Meanings slip and slide on the whims of its users. Populist, nationalist, liberal, conservative, socialist, communist ("communist" China?) are in constant flux. It's a goldmine for demagogues.
The press in particular should be aware of this and (1) either avoid slippery labels or (2) make heavy use of "in the sense that" when labels are unavoidable.
3
@John Mullen: No. Although usage does change, there is actually a consistent definition of 'populism' in political science. Where this discussion has gone off the rails is with regard to 'populism' as a core of political philosophy ideas, vs 'populism' as a political approach or practice. And even there, 'progressives' like Krugman, in their eagerness to co-opt a word with such a wholesome, positive sound, trim and twist the core philosophy to suit their needs.
Populism, as a philosophy and practice, styles itself as majoritarian (whether it is or not), claiming common cause with the majority of common people or 'regular folks' against one or more powerful 'elites' and usually also a collection of malefactors or dupes. It relies on extreme polarizing rhetoric and appeals to emotion over reason. Not only is it not necessarily aligned with the true best interests of the majority, it may be antithetical to them.
Mr Mullen says 'no one is in charge' of meaning. That, alas, is the problem. No longer do public schools teach even rudimentary civics, much less philosophy or poli sci. Thus, John Q Public may not be able to coherently define the words he flings around, or which are flung at him, but by golly he believes every gassy inchoate syllable; words have no intrinsic meaning and he's 'got a right to his opinion'. Democracy cannot thrive in this stony, sere, weed-choked intellectual soil, and the Founders never intended on planting it in such ground.
This is a very commin misunderstanding of how language works, which has a lot of commonality with mistakes about economics and biology.
Meaning in English (or any other language) evolves and changes, but not randomly. Or more precisely, meanings are "random," in the sense that nobody quite sits down and determines them (though Webster and others actually kinda did), but no, things can't just mean whatever you want. The meaning develops through use, by enough people that something new spreads around. There are rules, even if nobody codifed them.
Try Marx: men make history, but they do not make it from materials of their own choosing. The rules are in the materials.
If you think I am wrong, fine: try ordering a jelly donut by callng it a wombat, see how that goes.
1
@Robert Thank you Robert. I think I agree with everything you write. There are societies hat impose meanings and punish those who violate. France tries to do it for a whole country, not too successfully. But the society of physicists would punish a member who wrote an article in which force is defined as mass x velocity. Speaking of pastry (as you did) crullers are now called sticks where I live. I could easily envision a town in which teens took to calling jelly donuts wombats. Ordinary, non-technical American English is a majority rules. That situation. Everyone has the right to call a "cool" guy "hot" or an attractive good woman "bad" if enough people decide to do it. In these cases there are rules. Most are short lived.
Have we crossed the Rubicon on civility? Reading the comments the underlying hate is palpable. Stating why you disagree with Trump and his policies is secondary to personal attacks. This is why nothing seems to change. The Dems should be clearly laying out their programs, instead their campaign slogan seems to be "vote for me, my Republican opponent is aligned with the devil". Please give me a reason to vote FOR you.
5
@RHB50 Here's an article on Vox about Democratic message for 2018 : https://www.vox.com/2018/5/21/17376128/democrats-better-deal-democracy-m...
Here's the "Values" page from the Democratic party's website : https://democrats.org/page/2682?source=homepage&_ga=2.79653724.91223...
While it is certainly easy to find Democrats railing against the current administration and their policies (not just as the Devil, but, you know, actual policies) it isn't that difficult to find the things they want to work towards given a legislative majority.
If you share some of the aspirations, you should vote Democrat.
1
How about this: "Well, we lie, cheat and steal a lot less often, and generally at least TRY to know what we're talking about and do the right thing. Oh, and we don't incite violence and racist hatred."
It's not expressive of mindless hatred to call a greedy, lying crook a greedy, lying crook.
2
White nationalism is Trump's core appeal to his base and he stays in campaign mode to keep his base engaged in his rhetoric. He is indeed a populist and master of manipulation.
I believe the media calling Trump a populist is simply shorthand to describe whom his base appears to consist of. Why these people support him is an entirely different question and one for the psychologists to figure out. But this is definitely a problem and makes the media complicit in entrenching the myth.
1
In my many years of voting, I always tried to vote for presidential candidates--as well as other candidates for various offices--that gave labor a priority over capital. That would mean that I could have voted for a Republican by the name of Abraham Lincoln, who said: "Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."
What the Republican Lincoln said was very populist, but no Republican would support that position today, based on all their anti-labor votes in Congress and efforts to seat justices on the Supreme Court that have little to no interest in the plight of working Americans. Also, Republicans have routinely been opponents of legislation that has helped working Americans--e.g., Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Affordable Care Act.
Working Americans believing that Trump and his Republican enablers (or is that Putin-Trump Party enablers?) have their interest at heart are not paying attention to the history of the Republican Party or personal history of Donald Trump who failed to pay dishwashers, painters, waiters, contractors, etc.
Trump is clearly not a populist now, and he has never been one, based on his past history of stiffing those that did work for him; and the Republican Party, once the Party of Lincoln, routinely gives capital a priority over the labor of working Americans.
4
The only thing populist is the trade war which is an ineffectual performance of concern for folks in the former industrial heartland. Unfortunately this will continue to be a winning issue for Trump s long as the alternative presented by the Democrats is "America is Already Great" we just need more free trade agreements.
Sometime in the 1990's the economics profession, myself included, rejected industrial policy. The results have not been good and it is time to reconsider.
1
What about what he's done to farmers with his trade tariffs? No populist love there. In fact, post-election studies showed that the majority of Trump's voters were not poor/working class, but middle to upper income educated whites, a point that Democratic candidates would be wise to present in upcoming elections, instead of backing losing ideas like abolishing ICE.
2
I see that Professor Krugman makes no mention of Mr. Trump's tariffs. Could it be because the tariffs are actually helping the working class?
5
@Warren Did you stop reading halfway through? "Anyway, whatever his motivations, Trump in action is the opposite of populist. And no, his trade war doesn’t change that judgment. William McKinley, the quintessential Gilded Age president who defeated a populist challenger, was also a protectionist. Furthermore, the Trumpian trade war is being carried out in a way that produces maximum harm to U.S. workers in return for minimum benefits."
5
@Warren Very astute observation. In fact the copy and paste response you recieved actually illustrates why Trump is in fact a populist due to his trade policies. And yes, the fact that Krugman doesn't specifically single out the tariffs is telling. Telling because he probably has irrefutable data that they are working.
Look at your own checkbook. Now look at what you just said.
1
This article is spot on. I challenge anyone to show me a policy Trump has implemented that has benefited the working middle and lower class. "The Wall" is 25 billion that is certainly not going to help anyone. Even the roll back of regulations WILL COME BACK TO BITE US, GUARANTEED.
9
Yeah! Sock it to 'em Kruggers!
4
Does wishing that Trump meets the same fate as McKinley make me a bad person? Just asking. If Trump can make a hypothetical claim about shooting someone on Fifth Avenue, I don't see why this comment can't see the light of day.
1
Trump is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He says what he needs to say to get elected - such as 'we will have better, cheaper health care after I am elected and everyone will be covered' and that he will bring jobs back from overseas. He is a snake oil salesman. He actually took the job of president to benefit himself and his family financially. Don't kid yourselves.
3
Trump is indeed an easy target. Every negative thing said about him in this piece is true.
But he got elected. Genuinely gullible, stupid, or looking-for-a-tax-break voters elected him. Also, the Electoral College no more does the job originally ascribed to it in the Constitution, so its members now vote on party lines, another reason Trump won.
But how can at least 25% of the electorate be so taken in, when it is clear their lives, their pay, their environment, their healthcare has not improved under his administration.
Perhaps critical thinking is no longer taught in public schools. I do not understand people voting for their own worst interests, or believing lie after lie. Even a girl, faced with a perpetually lying boyfriend, usually chucks him, and vice-versa, and learns to recognize the ring of falsehood.
But not Trump's base.
Then there are the 50% of voters who stayed home in the last election, hating both choices. I can only hope his serious mistakes, lawlessness and denigration of women, races, religions, the press, combined with his itchy nuclear trigger-finger, willl stimulate voter turnout.
The U.S. is not a better place under Trump, nor would it be under anyone of his ilk.
5
Yep. If the EC had done what it was designed to do, Kasich'd be Prez.
Not good, but a whale of an improvement over this....show.
1
@Robert--glad you feel that way. Kasich had some good points, but I wasn't entirely on board with his program.
I was a Bernie supporter. At least with him, taxes would have been fairly apportioned, but more, we the taxpayers would have gotten real results from our taxes.
Don't cringe -- please help flip Congress in November.
Our current chief WH resident is an exaggerated version of his predecessors. All are storytellers trying to sell their narrative to the public. In the present case, though, both Mr. Trump and his slice of the public are bonded by a need for attention. This need by his listeners is understandable, but the distractions about media, immigrants and other "enemies" that he pushes in his story line builds a wall around his likeminded listeners that is protective in one sense, but also constricting, a kind of oratorical gerrymandering.
1
Prof. Krugman, may I ask you to consider the following into your formula to explain why Mr. T is hurting his base supporters and they don’t seem to care?
His hard core supporters are anti-intellectual mass, either well schooled of not, who get high when their copy is holding the leading role in the reality show.
They are enjoying the show where their arms are being bent as long as they cannot comprehend what are being done to them (they are just dumb and hate people who think). As long as their copy is performing these acts, they think THEY are the boss and empowered. They don’t see the divide between his type (oligarchs) and them in terms of wealth. They see the common thing: anti-intellectualism.
This may drive Republicans into the winning positions in the midterms. Am I too far fetched?
News stories need to clearly state the truth. Stop reporting about what Trump says. Start reporting about what he is does. His words are a hand grenade to divert us from the real policy he is signing. Journalists. Tell the truth. Be very clear about actual policy, cause and effect. Trumps words are a smokescreen.
4
Ironically, Trump's criticism of the press is not entirely without merit. The term populist has become a catch-all for those who depart from the dogma and hypocrisy of tired old party politics.
2
I cringe 30 times an hour listening to the MSM. Their laziness in correcting terms like "populist" is just the tip of the iceberg. They amplify lies by pure laziness or out of a useless and pointless desire to sound neutral as opposed to objective. That's the greatest sin of what should rightly be called infotainment.
3
He's not an economic populist, unless one thinks his anti-immigrant and tariff policies economically favor some large mass of the populous (like say low affluent and insecure Whites).
However. Trump is pretty squarely within the tradition of symbolic, demagogic populists like Joseph McCarthy emphasized by Richard Hofstadter (as opposed to the economic populist like the pre-1897 Tom Watson emphasized by John Hicks and Lawrence Goodwyn).
1
A populist is literally, one who believes the majority rules, minorities are worthless.
McCarthy was a demagogue, not a populist. He invented a non-existent problem (even if folks had CPUSA membership, it was perfectly legal) and he built his career destroying anyone in his way, including a lot of pre-Stalin era members who thought of the promise of equality as a pretty good idea.
He told us, along with Nixon and his HUAC boys that all Communists were single-world Stalinists devoted to violent overthrow of the US government.
Now one of my treasures, a copy of a ghosted for JEdger Hoover anti-commie book stamped donated (to every teacher in my home district) by the American Legion, when the vet groups were big, ugly, and politically powerful.
The “leaders” played populist, as Trump does, but, like Trump, they were elitist slime with no interest in “the majority” beyond getting their votes.
In an effort to work into the city-suburbs, Trump announced an unbudgeted $12 billion Tariff Relief Fund. Notice I said city-suburban. In rural regions, folks know affected soybean and wheat growers are a few billion-dollar companies, and the ancient mythic family farm grew perishable products, flowers, nursery stock and sod (last item almost entirely under contract to pro baseball stadiums)
So Trump promised a $12 billion bailout package to ADM and friends, companies like Monsanto, and played it like he guaranteed the trade war wouldn’t cost Lassie her doggie treats. That’s demagoguery.
1
But Trump IS a populist. Prof Krugman is indulging in an all too common failing -- Humpty-Dumptyism ('When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less'). It's understandable Krugman wants to redefine the word. Sounds like 'popular', 'power to the people', all that good stuff. Who would not want to be popular?
But if you actually read history, you find many, arguably most, 'populist' movements would be classified as right-wing, or so far to the left that they end up on the right. Populism is a political technique. A populist movement is marked by extreme rhetoric of us against them. And populist leaders almost always fail to deliver on their promises to the great unwashed.
The Klan was populist. So was Hitler. So were Chavez, Father Coughlin, Huey Long, George Wallace. (Long and Chavez actually did some good, at first.) Jim Jones' Peoples Temple was populist.
(Whether 'democracy' ultimately deteriorates into anarchy via destructive populism, and then is succeeded by dictatorship - as Plato argued, though he didn't have the word 'populism' to describe the downfall of democracy - is an argument worth having, though we won't have it here.)
I recommend a new book, 'Enemies of the State: The Radical Right from FDR to Trump' by historian DJ Mulloy. Mulloy includes an analysis of the elements common to populist movements as well as accounts and analysis of examples.
Like it or not, Trump is a classic populist.
2
The press uses the term populist because they are frightened to use the most accurate adjective -- demagogue.
5
Trump knows that his base is unwilling to educate themselves and move beyond Fox"News" and it's ilk.
Hopefully, there will be a time in the not to distant future when they will realize, maeyb too late, that the Trump Administration has caused them permanent damage.
6
Trump is a populist because he speaks to the issue of our evaporating middle class, albeit with false promises and deplorable policies. Workers who support him do so because he promises relief from falling incomes, not because they are racist. At present, the Democratic Party appears unable to put forward its own ideas on growing middle class jobs (paying, say, $35/hour) for non-college graduates. Professor Krugman, this Comment is a plea. Please, in your next op-eds, help your fellow Democrats articulate a way forward on jobs. Our appalling President has already co-opted the legislature and, in the next month or two, will have co-opted the courts. He will be unstoppable. The only way out is for the Democrats to win back the House and that can only happen with a positive jobs message. Anti-Trump messaging won't be enough. Hence the plea...
4
I am sorry Mr. Krugman, but a populist means someone who represents the "common people", and does not by definition need to focus on labor rights.
A populist can lean to the left or right of the political spectrum.
Dating back to the book What's Wrong with Kansas, many observers have noted that "common people" in the U.S. often vote against their economic interests in favor of "cultural issues"-- and thus the shift to a red/ blue divide from a previous divide that was something more along the lines of of labor/management divide.
5
Obama was the real populist, raising taxes on the top 1% (the real establishment) via the ACA and partial Bush tax cut expiration, while covering 20 million more with health insurance. He also regulated the banks.
The income share of the top 1% actually fell from its peak in 2007 compared with 2014, the latest CBO data available. In other words, inequality fell during that time.
Obama raised taxes on the average top 1% family by about $21,000, shifting $600 on average to the bottom 40% of families via the ACA, according to CBO.
At pre-Reagan inequality, the bottom 99% would be getting $7,000 more per year in income. It will probably take much higher taxes on the rich, Medicare for All, and free college to make sure they get those funds. That is real populism.
2
To his supporters, Trump is anything he says he is. Of course, he’s never called himself a populist and his supporters don’t know that word anyway. What they think he is, is a good guy. How they can think that is unfathomable to me.
7
@Ian, It's the small gestures, like handing out $100 bills to the caddies at Mar a Lago, and pardoning cowboys jailed for setting prairie fires.
2
@Steve Bolger Sort of like handing out Obama-phones
@peversma
What Obama-phones?
Trump's gave huge tax breaks to Billionaires, and now his is poised to give them even more. This comes at a time when the USA has the largest income discrepancy of any country in the western world. These policies are rob from to many to give to the rich - that is hardly a populist idea.
7
@S B
Only "progressives" care about some abstract idea of income discrepancy, due mostly to envy. Everyday Americans see their prospects improving and don't care all that much if some earn more than they do.
3
@jaco
What? You think that you won't be burned by the republicans?I guess not. It's unusual to have a multi millionaire comment on the Krugman column.
@jaco you use the word "earn" very loosely. I posit that your average walmart employee actually "earns" his wage; the heirs to the walmart fortune, have never worked a day in their collective lives, and their income comes in the form of capitol gains, not taxed like income and free from such social niceties as payroll deductions. They most certainly do not "earn" that wealth.
There is a lengthy literature on populism and there is a clear consensus among academics, if not journalists. Paul hits the rhetorical dichotomy between mass and elites, which consumes most of this article. But populism is more than mass v. elites and this is the problem with the media's explanation of populism. Populism comes from the left-wing or the right-wing. It is in fact just a political strategy, not a coherent political ideology. Populists use their charisma to evade clear policy prescriptions and they constantly change their mind. Most importantly, populists bypass traditional institutions of representation to directly connect with voters. Unfortunately, populists appear in times of crisis and their track record generally portends greater crisis in the future.
1
I completely agree and wish the media would change course.
1
Well said, Mr. Krugman. If only the media would follow your advice and not be dupes for the greatest carnival barker this country has ever seen.
2
Trump is not a populist. I wrote this in a comment soon after Trump took office. As a child of a working class father, I know what a populist looks like and Trump is not and never was one.
The Republicans like him because he is making the rich richer and the religious right likes him because he is appointing the "correct" type of judges. Working class people (who really want their government helping them) are getting nothing because they are too dazzled by Trump's uncivil behavior. He is their Pied Piper.
Sooner or later the ordinary working class man and woman will finally see the con.
3
Maybe if Krugman and his analogues had bothered writing something about Bernie Sanders other than reductionist hit pieces, we'd have a real populist in office.
3
"Stop Calling Trump a Populist"
That's about the nicest thing you could say about him.
"Watching Trump in action, it’s hard to escape the impression that he knows very well that he’s inflicting punishment on his own base. But he’s a man who likes to humiliate others, in ways great and small. And my guess is that he actually takes pleasure in watching his supporters follow him even as be betrays them."
The above paragraph precisely distills Trump to his terrifying yet banal essence.
It's urgent that we stop pretending that Trump has a real plan or desire to help anybody other than a tiny sliver of elites and not destroy anybody that attempts to get in his way.
But let's not get caught up in hysterics and hyperbole, wasting our time trying to convince his base what this man truly is. They already know.
This isn't the time for an ideas "revolution", it's a time to be smart, work together and find ways to win elections, not for crazy, half clever antics and stunts highlighting how awful and terrible Trump is.
He wants us to waste our time hating him. Let's stop taking the bait.
2
Actually, Trump is indeed a populist. But he is too stupid to understand that his actions are hurting working people. He has convinced himself that whatever he does for his own class (the very rich) actually helps his base - the lower middle class and nothing will dissuade him from this imagined belief.
1
What Trump is doing is not new. It is the 1980's wrapped up for all to bleed through, again. Only this time there is no postwar wealth to fall back on when the bottom falls out.
Reagan was more similar than different. He displayed a flip disdain for "losers." Guess what happens next?
3
The video of Trump supporters jeering the CNN reporter Jim Acosta at the rally in South Carolina is truly frightening. This is what a mob looks like, and this is a mob incited by the POTUS, of all people.
The damage Trump has done to the nation and its people, including his own supporters, is incalculable and ongoing.
Where and when does it end?
3
Trump has never been for the working class, just like the modern GOP has never been for the working class. Trump supporters have been voting against their own interests for years. That's why, as Donald Trump stated, they love the poorly educated. There isn't a better group to sell the snake oil to.
Trump isn't a populist. He's isn't a republican. He's a caricature of what the GOP has been building for decades come home to roost.
9
As others have said, this article is completely worthless. It is the equivalent of the "red meat" that Trump feeds his supporters.
As the opposition, we need to understand what Trump is doing and his appeal.
1.- Most people declared him crazy when he started the trade skirmishes. So far, that is not going too bad for him. The economy hasn't been hurt, and it is high time that we did something about chinese cheating.
2.- Maybe it is just luck, but the economy has been improving and his focus on jobs is working for him. It is just talk, but something needed to be done. BTW, why is everybody still ignoring the hundreds of IT jobs that greedy corporations have transferred to India, China, the Czech Republic, Ireland, etc. etc.? These are high paying jobs and we are giving away IP when we offshore them.
3.- His anti-immigration focus has strong support. Some of his base is racist, but most of them are just xenophobic. Through history there has been anti-immigration feeling against Chinese, Jews, Irishmen, German, etc. etc. The democratic party needs a credible immigration platform. The "abolish the ICE" cries are incredibly stupid and play into the extremists hands.
We do not advance the opposition when the only thing we do is decry his racism and declare that the only people benefiting are the 1%. There are certainly many in his base that like what they are seeing.
Here’s what sanity is up against.
Last night on the PBS evening news they interviewed a female worker in a nail factory where half the people had been laid off due to Trump’s tariffs. She said she voted for Trump and would do it again. “I know what he’s done has hurt business, but I know he means well.”
8
Trump is a con man. He has nothing but disdain and disrespect for the people who follow him. He views them only as rubes he can con and lie to, not people who deserve real policies that serve their interests. In this sense, Trump is a Republican. That party for some time has lied to their voters about their real priority--serving the interests of their wealthiest campaign contributors--while conning them with phony issues, fake scandals and conspiracies, and by appealing to their worst instincts and fears. Trump and his party are the ones who hurt their base on a daily basis and disrespect them as well by treating them like idiots. It is time for the base to start paying attention and toss the con men out.
3
If we may but lower the myopic Marxist lenses and look over the rim into the distance: Putin is not the most popular politician in Europe because of his economic policies, the surging Right in Europe and India has never been more prosperous. Money, Paul, as we were taught, cannot buy happiness. And there is no happiness where the inner soul is in turmoil, and there is no such terror, as the self-flagellation of a confused identity. The wreckage of the "eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die" mantra unleashed in the sixties is everywhere, and when #Me Too erupted into the open it confirmed what many suspected all along: that the Revolution replaced the Patriarchy with a male dystopia. The uproar--from Indianapolis to India--is a cry for relief from soulless economic materialism, for "what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and have last his soul." The EU welfare state crisis is entirely cultural/spiritual, and the masses are seeking rest for their souls in the native gods. Any politician who will break their chains to allow them that freedom will be popular, no matter how corrupt. The masses want freedom from the stifling existing order, even if it means jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
1
He is authoritarian, and all authoritarians disguise their "dictator in training" tendencies with the "man of the people" mantle.
4
He is an angry man who only looks out for # 1 and other corporate bigwigs. His policies are anti labor, anti worker, anti safety, anti environment etc . And pro cutting any regulation that improves working life or safety or was put in place by the Obama administration.
He is anti populist but has a whole bunch of his supporters conned into thinking they will prosper.
4
People love him because he stands up to the establishment, to the bureaucrats, and to the media.
How else does one explain his election? He's a human hand grenade. Think about all of the crazy things he promised during the campaign. Think about the language he used. Republicans chose him over 15 establishment approved options. And then a majority of voters in 700 counties that had chosen Obama, chose Trump.
How else does one explain his poll numbers? They've actually gone up over the past few weeks, in the face of relentless criticism from the establishment, from the expert class, and from the media.
In other words, he's more popular than the establishment, the media, and the bureaucrat expert class, and his populism mainly manifests itself in a rejection of everything they stand for. But for someone like Paul to acknowledge this - that Trump's popularity is a function of his side's unpopularity - would take an act of humility and self-awareness that's probably too much to ask for. Maybe Paul should step away for awhile, and spend more time at one of his vacation homes.
But where does that leave us? I propose a two-front attack. First, fight populism for white people with populism for minorities. Second, keep tone policing the insecurely upper middle class in the exurbs. Let them know that climbing the career ladder depends on them thinking, speaking, and voting according to the whims of their progressive betters.
Both are risky, but necessary.
2
It's the globalization, stupid. Coastal elites love it. Everyone else, not so much. Add to that the cost of supporting America's mercantile empire, on top of $20 trillion in debt, and neo-liberal economic policies look downright boneheaded. No one cried when good union jobs went offshore. Don't expect a lot of sympathy for farmers (all three of them) global bankers and hedge fund managers, now.
1
"No one cried when good union jobs went offshore."
Union members certainly didn't. To be fair, a lot of them did - but a lot of others were busy voting for Reaganite politicians who promised to stick it to the uppity minorities.
Elections have consequences, it turns out.
1
Donald Trump serves his supporters very well indeed and by his supporters I mean the Koch Brothers, the Mercers and the Adelsons of this world who, along with a little help from Putin of course, put him in power. As for the little guys, the ones who cheer him on at his rallies, the folks who are so concerned about our rapidly changing society and their future in it they may eventually wake up to the fact that The Donald really doesn’t care about them but as long as he gives them something to hate and to blame and as long as the Democrats fail to provide an appealing alternative, and as long as the economy remains strong, he will win retain their devotion.
3
Mr. Krugman demonstrates the social Marxist's misunderstanding of reality by looking at the world through the lens of power and economics. The Trump phenomenon and his undeniable populist support are about social norms and cultural identity, not economics. They arose as the direct opposition to the identity politics that defy common sense and insult fine people. They arose in opposition to patently false themes such as like "cops hunt black men", "women are oppressed" and ""blacks can't be racist." No Paul, President Trump is entirely populist ... your problem is that he's not your kind of Marxist populist.
2
Krugman is spot on, and I'd only go a little further in terminology: Trump is a fascist in his outlook and policy positions.
1
Who in the news says Trump is a populist? Mayor Bloomberg said it first; Trump is a conman. Trump would never be elected for anything in New York City, where he is known too well.
3
Dr. K once again cuts through all the clutter and reminds us what is at the heart of the hideous matter. The con is on and 45 is playing us all for suckers. The media—like the public—are distracted by the carnival lights and the hucksterism. The irony is that while 45 screams “fake news” he relies on the free media to convey his lies verbatim. Until the media refuse to accept the language of false equivalence and stop giving credence to the deception, the scam will continue unabated. Don’t shill for the man by parroting his words to the easily duped. We rely on you all for the truth.
2
How many presidents in our history have had to have fact checkers ticking off the lies after every public appearance? That would be one. And you can fact check that.
1
Trump no longer says things; he merely alleges them. Journalism that indicates otherwise gives deception aid.
1
While we’re at it, can the Republican Party stop being called the GOP? That’s an outdated, cute, feel good name that they don’t deserve.
Yes, call him what he is a demagogue. He is a rabble rouser, a cult leader, a televangelist and Big Brother all rolled up into one. I am more alarmed of his crowds of supporters. I have been since Trump started talking like Mussolini, and crowds ate it up. The jeering at the press, the pettiness and the nastiness. They can't wait to bend the knee the Great Leader and worship Big Brother and indulge in their two minutes of hate sessions.
1
Does Krugman have any sense of shame? Where does he come up with this bunk? I don't know if Krugman pays attention to current events but he should take a look at the unemployment numbers. I guess Krugman in his fragile Ivory Tower does not understand that working people care about jobs, and on that front Trump has delivered spectacularly.
2
At least the Roman masses got to see an occasional gladiator spectacle compared to a Trump rally on CNN
Megalomaniac best describes Trump in action, words, & deeds. Gawdawful is his policy. He has all the traits of a full-blown untreated addict & his DoC is deceit. Of course, most people below the Mason-Dixon wouldn't be caught dead reading a NYT, so , in reality, neither your words nor mine will reach his audience. I have lived in the south for most of my adult life & southerners want to return to pre-1850 & stay there!
1
Trump's Playbook: Take Cover in the Biggest Lies You Can Find.
W. perfected the move with initiatives such as the Clean Air Act of 1990, which was designed to pull back pollution restrictions for the betterment of the wealthy's wallets.
W. wasn't the first to do such an immoral and unethical bait and switch, and Trump won't be the last.
To his discredit, however, Trump has turned lying to the American people into a (dark) art form.
3
To ascribe terms like populist, or isolationist, or globalist to this man presupposes his breadth of study and knowledge. He's none of the above. He's a maniacal, narcissistic con-man, completely ignorant of history or political acumen. He's an authoritarian wanna-be. That's why his oratorical style is shouting, and his consumption of data (see: PDB's) is at best juvenile.
" it’s hard to escape the impression that he knows very well that he’s inflicting punishment on his own base. But he’s a man who likes to humiliate others" That is a key characteristic of anti-social personality disorder. Google "sociopathic characteristics". Manipulating people for personal pleasure or gain is one of the key characteristics of a sociopath. And 8 of the other 9 characteristics of a sociopath fit Trump
3
Demagogue is the correct term for President Trump.
6
Like a bleary-eyed lover a dysfunctional romance, the typical working- class Trump supporter can't help but project his or her own personal dream of a faithful, trustworthy president on to a desperately insecure cheater.
Liberal, progressives, and anyone left of center should Never have allowed the nationalist xenophobic political parties and politicians to grab the title of Populist. This was a big PR mistake. In an earlier time in American history, these politicians were labelled for what they are: Know Nothings.
1
He’s not a populist; he’s a con man.
2
Trump is a demagogue and a fascist, not a populist.
“unwittingly captured by GOP orthodoxy” is a big part of the story.
Trump was a business man, a pragmatist, and a political moderate. That is what his ’16 voters thought, especially within Hillary’s blue wall that disappeared under her usual mismanagement.
(She mismanages and loses control of things and events with nearly everything she has responsibility for. There is a thing about earning responsibility, earning cooperation, earning respect, etc., for which many despair of learning. Bernie has it. But the Clintons did a great job with Chelsea.)
What turned Trump’s poorly educated, poorly socialize, poorly parented brain (how did we get that option in ’16?) was Fox ‘News’. Charlatans like Rupert Murdoch and his protégé in generating fake news, Putie the liar and murderer, seek out the vulnerable.
In his weakness, Trump succumbed to the propaganda from Fox and the other right wing talking heads.
Political parties and corporations spend on advertising because it works. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on the operation of the right wing media for several decades. There is nothing comparable on the left. The center, MSM, stopped doing journalism because Wall Street turned ‘news” into a profit center. (All corp. should be B corp. Wall Street hypocrisy: shaft workers with the excuse that we are now globalized, then cut out foreign correspondents. Trudy Rubin: students asked why they hadn’t heard about Iraq.)
1
DR. Krugman, while I agree all on accounts about your column, still one critical issue appals me.
Trump when he is doing all those negative things, his voices cover the air better than Democrats.
Democrats never achieved this level of single man talking point, in fcat it is against what we stand for , but for example, during Obama administration, Tea party and their ilk barking towards Obama, one man voice makes big sense and difference but Democrats never used his influence. he was talking in white middle class language and convincing .
Joe Biden .
We need some body talks, some body answer teh way it is, not elaborated and embellished bith intelligence but straight forward expsoing this Trump liand his ilk lying faces.
I will expect Joe Biden will be the candidate for 2020 , he is the man soothe americas anger and afatherly figure gives us a wise advises, we do not need challenging youg agressive or demented white racist presidents.
we need true uniter. Joe biden fits the Ticket.
Kavanaugh is a radical far-right, anti-labor extremist because he believed that SeaWorld employees should realize killer whales can potentially be dangerous. Got it.
Paul,
As long as you insist on giving "what's his name" so much free publicity, he wins.
1
Of all Trumps "characteristics", one stands out... Liar. Remember this in November. No, we can not get rid of this administration yet but we can limit it's damage if we take the House and Senate. This might be our last chance!!
1
What populist?
Trump is a hedonistic opportunist nothing else.
3
Hey, I got $400 extra dollars every month thanks to Trump tax cuts. All I got under Obama was a more expensive health plan.
2
Paul, I wrote a comment on an NYT reporting piece, "Trump Administration Unveils Its Plan to Relax Car Pollution Rules", which was critical regarding a 'bigger issue' of economics, and now I feel a bit guilty if criticism falls on the reporter.
Could you absolve both her and me, as you are NYT's political-economist:
"This reporting, while good on details, is entirely missing the 'big picture' --- which is that supporting the ultra-high pyramid of wealth concentration in this disguised global capitalist Empire requires the 'allowance' of making massive and front-end loaded faux-profits through the scheme of dumping 'negative externality costs' both within the metropole of the Empire in our former country and throughout its global peripheral territories.
There is, of course, some fine irony that the "Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back" [Jane Kay] and similar books like "Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power" [Steven Coll], focus around, if not totally on, the economic fact that making huge fortunes by hiding the 'negative externality costs' to society and our world are difficult to bring up in cocktail parties of the UHNWI's here in America as well as abroad.
Essentially, as I wrote in my first internet article for a Vermont web-site in 1995, "Corporate 'Negative Externality Costs' are the Greatest Hidden Tax on Americans".
This is "Why (Emperor) Trump Is Taking On Car Emission Rules" --- to keep the Empire running.
1
YUP and true. However, who since perhaps LBJ has been looking out for the people?? Not Bill Clinton? Not Barrack Obama. Obamacare was another gift for the insurance companies. The drug bill - a gift to the drug companies. Too big to fail?? = monopoly capitalism? (if there's no competition is it capitalism?) Hillary proved herself in bed with Wall Street, unthinking (voting for war on the basis of scant misinformation) and ultimately sans solutions for the problems of the unemployed and rather desperate: OTOH hard to know what will make those lives better. PS plenty of upper middle and upper class people voted for Trump -- oh those life-long Republicans -- well rewarded! OTOH, how can the current Neoliberal economic system be considered either pro-labor or appropriate in an increasing automated so-called democracy?
@Make America Sane
There are so many false points in your narrative that it's hard to tell where to begin.
But the only thing that's obvious is where you must get your news from.
Trump has always been a con-artist. That's the way he has conducted himself throughout his entire life.
Trumps followers are gullible, easily fooled, and don't understand what it is they are supporting and voted for. The ones that do understand what he is are the ones that are making money on his government policies.
The Republican party is mute in all of this as they are keen to not have his stink stick to them. Mitch and Paul are silent as they attempt to ride out the storm of negative publicity that follows Trump.
Trump meanwhile, thumbs his nose at America, cries wolf about the media and tries to convince the gullible that he is right and everyone else is wrong.
Meanwhile, Trumps boss, Vladimir Putin, is the one calling the shots for America. It is looking more and more likely that Putin does have compromising material on Trump. The SNL skits are likely hitting closer to the truth than anyone originally thought. Or is Trump merely a coward and completely lacking in the ability to stand up for the nation that he leads. Either way America loses.
Think really carefully about who and what you are voting for at the mid-term elections in November and in 2020. Have a look at your paycheck and see if it is doing better. What is the real cost of living? Did the big tax cut help you? How is your healthcare situation doing; did your costs go up or down?
Don't vote based on empty slogans - ask questions and get the facts!
If a populist politician is one who serves the interests of the “little people,” Trump is a PIRO—a Populist In Rhetoric Only. Trump has abiding contempt for the “little-people-losers” he manipulates.
Elevation of the maker-winners and disparagement and neglect of the taker-losers is hardly distinctive of the programs promoted by Trump.
Judged on the basis of what they do rather than on what "conservative" GOP politicians say, in contemporary parlance, "conservative" chiefly means "one who uses short-term economic efficiency as the justification for all socio-economic programs and policies irrespective of the consequences for persons." Short term capital accumulation and profits are the be-all-and-end-all of "social interactions." For such "conservatives" all "human" relations are transactional and fungible, whatever is legal is moral and honorable, and "justice" is the inevitable outcome of unfettered "free"-market exchanges. "Freedom" is "the opportunity to expend one's time, talent and resources in any way one deems conducive to the pursuit of one's private and subjective self-interest."
Trump has merely redefined “short-term economic efficiency” to mean “economic efficiency that serves first and foremost the interests of Trump himself, his family and his friends.” Trump’s “conservatism” is just more openly self-serving and kleptocratic than is the plutocratic “conservatism” promoted by many GOP politicians.
1
Christopher Columbus gave news of the American continent to wealthy Europeans who then sent conquistadors to bring back undreamed of riches. Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton et al dared to take a chunk of this continent for there own experiment, a new nation. The conquistadors want it back. Trump is just the spearhead for this unrevolution. The experiment could be over soon.
Trump's followers worship him because...they saw him on TV. I know, it sounds ridiculous at first, but such is the insidious power of television. It creates an illusion, then presents it as "reality." NBC gave us "The Apprentice," a game show in which Trump PRETENDED to be a savvy, hard-nosed businessman. The contestants PRETENDED to be competing for a job with the Trump Organization, and Trump PRETENDED to hire the "winner." In reality, the winner got some money, some publicity, and a nice letter of recommendation from The Donald. There was NO JOB for the winner. It was all about marketing Trump himself.
And too many middle-class Americans fell for the con, because they believe that what they see on TV is somehow more "real" than their own lives. There's a reason why too many Americans watch 4+ hours of TV every day. It's a drug, a soporific that mindlessly soothes the aches of everyday living. Writer Harlan Ellison nailed it when he referred to television as "The Glass Teat."
Yesterday, folks in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania flocked to the Mohegun Sun Arena to see Trump and to hear him stump for Lou Barletta. It was a textbook example of "the cult of personality." Trump spewed his usual nonsense about "bringing back coal," and the descendants of coal-miners ate it up--even though the coal industry around Wilkes-Barre died 60 YEARS AGO. Those folks gleefully forgot how their grandfathers died of black-lung disease from coal mining.
It's CELEBRITY as politics.
8
Much of the press IS complicit in Trump lies. That complicity is visible every morning that the press starts off the news with 'President Trump tweeted …. (fill in the blank) …. over night....' That complicity is visible every time a national news broadcast interviews Trump stooges as if they represent informed points of view. Yes, Trump is no populist. Yes, his administration is a den of thieves. But Trump and his cronies are getting a free pass from the media when they legitimize those lies with uncritical coverage.
1
Message to Paul Krugman: for a change, you almost get it right. All politicians -- i'm thinking of Hillary's "I will fight for you" and Obama's "they bring a knife and we bring a gun" == use populist rhetoric, but govern as elitists. But the press never called Hillary and Obama populists, because it's a word that the press reserves for whomever they don't like.
But keep trying to get the word game right. You'll need it when Trump leaves office in 2024 and you will have to demonize Nikki Haley.
People who back Trump will never change their minds about him. He could go to one of his rallies and shoot as many of his fans as he pleases and they would still follow him. This is a hypnotic power Trump knows he has and Americans have no understanding of this behavior. The only way to prevent a national meltdown is to vote his weak enablers out in November. This is a very dangerous time and I hope the rest of America will recognize that fact. An insane populist controlling our destiny will destroy our country, I would prefer an altruistic dictator any day.
1
I think he hates us for not worshipping him and has decided to punish us for refusing to "bend the knee". He is attempting to beat us into submission.
The most disgraceful action by an American President during my political awareness (1948 - 2018) was George W. Bush directing U.S. Attorneys to prosecute Democratic candidates with phoney charges. U. S. Attorneys who refused were fired.
Now, I’d sure like to know what, if any, role Brett Kavanaugh, who was a Bush White House legal functionary, played in this legal horror.
1
But, Paul(if I may call you that) why should he do anything for these workers when he keeps their hearts and votes without having to help them at all? These workers are the same folks who chant "Lock her up!" at his rallies. These are the folks who scream obscenities at reporters and flip them off at his rallies. These are the same folks who will lose money because of his tariffs and still vote for him. These are the folks who will lose their health insurance, but are willing to die in pain and leave their families their debt to pay off. These Trump base voters are his cult, He doesn't have to do a thing for them.
2
All Trump supporters would do well to remember, "Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money." Cree Indian Proverb
3
Mr. Krugman's analysis/summary is correct; however he's not saying anything we we didn't know, nothing new or something we just inadvertently discovered. We knew Trump from the beginning.
Every day, there are more Trump outrages, the legitimate media (I leave out Fox which is Trump's propaganda machine), argue, debate and scream throughout the day, until the next outrage. Every day the Trump administration repeals more and more of our rights, civil and citizen.
We are give rays of hope in the guise of Robert Muller, the gallant hero who supposedly will save the day, but I can no longer buy into this Orwellian "Emanual Goldstein".
Who is to blame, the Trump base? No, for the most part, they are pawns, totally conditioned and brainwashed to love and believe Trump and to demonstrate the extreme anger and hate towards us we see (Tampa), (Read some of Joseph Goebbels writings).
The really sad part: We are the ones to blame, our apathy, our indifference as the GOP (and backers) have slowly but surely hijacked the government.
We should have yelled when Ford Pardoned Nixon; stood up to to Reagan, during the Iran Contra debacle, during his Tax cuts; we should have stood up to G.W Bush as he attempted to push us into a war under the pretext of Weapons of Mass Destruction; we should have yelled stop, when the Supreme Court struck down Political Donation Caps, and we should have screamed when McCain Chose Sarah Palin as his VP choice.
We made the mistakes, now we pay the price.
1
Mr. Trump is nothing more than a severely narcissistic game show host, who accidentally stumbled onto the wrong set.
1
That's why unemployment is dropping? Under the previous administration, people dropped out of the work force and just took handouts.
1
Isn't the label you are looking for "transactional"? For one who believes in nothing but his own celebrity or brand as a commodity to be sold, Trump will pick and choose 'consumer groups' for whom he will
1) appoint your religious zealot as VP
2) appoint your conservative judges
3) lower your corporate taxes
4) say publicly the horrible stuff in your mind but are what you yourself would never say.
etc
The man has a limited range of descriptive nouns and adjectives: people/things are really great/fantastic, or people/things are the worst/disgusting
It is sometimes mind-bending to read what motives and beliefs analysts and pundits read into his utterances. It's simply all about Trump, and after Trump the deluge as far as he's concerned.
Krugman is a perfect illustration of the Trump hating main stream media that Sarah Huckabee Sanders took to task in the White House news conference yesterday. If not for all of the anti-Trump reporting, the far left leaning main stream media outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, The Times, NPR, and the Huffington Post would be able to cut their staffs in half. As for Krugman, he should return his Nobel Prize in economics. His credibility went out the window with his prediction that the U.S. economy and stock market would tank if Trump was elected. Meanwhile, the economy grew by 4.1 % last quarter, unemployment is a record low 3.9%, the stock market is approaching record highs, and minority unemployment is at record lows. Make America great again is not just an empty slogan. It is actually happening, much to the consternation of Democrats, liberals and progressives.
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I wish you had also called out by name some of those Cabinet appointees who are very deliberately hurting the working class, such as Betsy DeVos and Ben Carson.
What would a real populist do? They would keep in mind that with pre-Reagan inequality, the bottom 99% families would be getting $7,000 more per year in income, and make sure they get it. Here's a policy path to do so:
1. Start with treating capital gains and dividends as ordinary income for just the top 1%, bringing in about $100 billion/year.
2. Tax stock buybacks and financial transactions. A 10% tax on stock buybacks is about $100 billion/year. You need this too or companies will shift from dividends to more buybacks.
3. Return to year 2000 tax rates for the top 1%, bringing in $110 billion/year. That's before you start with 40-50% marginal rates for millionaires.
4. Remove the cap on the social security tax (incomes over $128,400 or the top 6% of workers) to cover 70% of the Social Security shortfall and bringing in $200 billion/year.
Use the money to fund subsidies for the remaining 20 million citizens without health insurance and the 2 million who face ridiculous price increases without subsidy protection currently on the exchanges. Or fight for Medicare for All.
Then pay for the college educations or trade school for the working class and their kids.
That's populism.
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The economy just added 157,000 jobs last month, and unemployment fell to 3.9%. I tend to think that this helps "ordinary working Americans." Does Krugman the economist ever wrote about economics in the real world?
"....he actually takes pleasure in watching his supporters follow him even as be betrays them." And they seem okay with being betrayed on policy, as long as he continues to feed them the rhetoric that address their resentments of science, knowledge, inclusion and kindness.
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Excellent point. I think they mean to call him a demagogue but are dancing around it in an effort to look respectable and nonpartisan.
Thank you Mr Krugman for calling the media and all of us out on using language loosely.
Indeed our president is NOT a populist for the many reasons you enumerate. And by allowing
Ourselves to continue to use the term to describe his behavior we are all complicit in his lies!
Mr Trump as done nothing for the Everyman. His entire presidency has been devoted to
Enriching those who already have so much. For the have nots he has done nothing but
allow his despicable policies to be described as populist. If we don’t begin to use language
Correctly and call him out on his lies then shame on us. Better yet. Put your money where your
Mouth is and VOTE in November.
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Unfortunately, there are numerous definitions for "populism". One is: Trying to pitch "the people" (lat. populus) against "the elites". Trump certainly campaigned on this one with e.g. "drain the swamp". Another: Trying to be in favour with "the people", trying to be "popular". He certainly is no populist in the sense of acting like the leader of a "people's party" which seems to be the concept, Mr. Krugman has in mind. Typical for populist campaigns according to the first two definitions is: Claiming to have simple solutions for complex problems. Trump took it one step further by inventing bogus problems first, and claiming to have simple solutions afterwards: Illegal immigration, ravaging Latino streetgangs, crime-ridden inner cities, other countries ripping America off etc.
Trump is simply the latest manifestation of much of this country's ability to gull itself and be gulled by people who, as WJL has cleverly noted in these comments, will sell you the sizzle because they know you are more concerned with that than the steak.
Be reminded that we have long and proud traditions of grifterism and hucksterism here in the US, from PT Barnum to Elmer Gantry to "Brother, Where Art Thou" and a million others. Such charlatans can be enormously successful here because we also have a long and proud tradition of aw shucks anti-intellectualism and an abiding certainty that my opinion is just as good, or even better, than your proven facts.
Yesterday, Arthur C. Brooks wrote here than none of us should be guilty if we feel the need for a politics cleanse. I'd take it one step further--we drastically need a massive enema to clear out the collective national colon, which apparently is so impacted it's been making our brains sluggish. We don't need hoses--just a willingness to enter a polling booth and squeeze real hard.
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The truth is that Trump is a hybrid - a phenomenon we haven't seen in modern history. PAY attention: Trump is definitely a POPULIST with an AMERICA FIRST agenda of sovereignty, but not an ISOLATIONIST...that's FAKE NEWS.
He's a globalist, but NOT ever to the detriment of the USA.. Haters just cannot grasp this simple nuance.
For blind, partisan derangement and hatred, liberals simply don't GET him...it's the MAIN reason why he will be elected by a landslide in 2020. Donald Trump is a pragmatic, incredibly successful and charismatic businessman, and not a shred of an ideologue....or a typical swamp politician. To try and measure him in those terms, or to willfully misunderstand him by taking his RHETORIC and strategy LITERALLY, is suicidal if you are opposing him.
Here's the advice I would offer the "left" that MOST surely will fall on deaf ears, not that I care: to be victorious in battle, you must KNOW your opponent, their weaknesses AND strengths...Trump is moving at the speed of light compared to BINARY partisan bubbles on BOTH SIDES. Since the "progressive" side refuses/is unable to recognize Trump's true strengths, the battle is over before it begins...simple as that.
Not to mention, the utter lack of humility and brazen moral superiority amongst liberals...another FATAL FLAW His base and supporters understand all this.
Trump does not have the brain power to work out how to do anything that will help his base.
Compare video of the way he speaks and the way he spoke twenty years ago, and you will see clear evidence of mental decline.
Add that to the fact that he's lazy, won't study, doesn't believe facts are important, and doesn't really care about anyone but himself, and it's clear he couldn't help them even if he wanted to.
The alarming thing is that his base will make up things so they can hang onto the belief that he is doing good for them. See the recent stuff about "Q" and the bizarre stories about how he's secretly rescuing children from sexual slavery—secretly, of course...
Populist? I think this is the first time I've typed that string of letters in that order in this sidebar. No, Trump is not one, but he is someone who insists on using words loosely. Lewis Carroll nailed Trump's proclivity more than 50 years before Trump was born.
"When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things." "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master— that's all."
Is that a succinct, spot on illustration of the orange one, or not? With Trump we are, after all, captives in a Looking Glass world, stuck at a never-ending Mad Hatter tea party, conversation and all.
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The Populist (People’s Party) candidate whom McKinley defeated in 1896 was not only in favor of lower tariffs, he had been the main sponsor in Congress of what replaced tariffs as the main financial support of the federal government—the progressive income tax. It passed in 1892 but was found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and had to wait for a constitutional amendment and the Wilson administration in 1913. The Business Right of the time (Gilded Age Republicans) objected to the income tax because it was progressive, taxing the richer at higher rates than the poorer. Shockingly un-flat. Not much has changed. And the Populist leader, William Jennings Bryan, is now reduced to a benighted foil for Clarence Darrow in the Scopes evolution trial.
Krugman writes, "Why would he do all the things he’s doing to hurt the very people who gave him the White House?", but I really don't see that he's doing anything to hurt Putin specifically or Russia in general.
Okay Paul - and we'll make a deal with you. We stop calling Trump a populist if you all in the media stop pretending you don't know what motivates him ("Why would he do all the things he's doing to hurt the very people who gave him the White House?")
He does what he does because he's a sadist with no empathy. It's that simple.
Occam's Razor usually works with Trump: the stupidest, most cruel and corrupt motivation that you can imagine is always the right explanation for his actions.
He's sick.
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Populism is defined by whom one appeals to and how, not by what one actually does. Few, if any, populist leaders have helped their people over the long term. You are shooting at the wrong target.
Workers in the US are like the proverbial frog in a pot. They won't feel the heat because it is turned on slowly - but they'll boil all the same.
If you describe Trump supporters as the Confederacy, now fighting the Culture War (thanks to Pat Buchanan, proud Son of the Confederates member) rather than the Civil War, the support that Trump has makes lot more logical, if evil, sense.
The Neo-Confederates are traitors, just like they were in the Civil War. The Evangelicals got their start in 1845 when they formed the Southern Baptist church to defend and advance slavery. The Confederacy didn't just go away' it became the Lost Cause and it's back to haunt us in this century among Trump's supporters.
Don't call them Republicans, they are in thought, word and deed the Neo-Confederates.
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Trump's lifelong credo, learned from his ruthless father and amoral mentor, Roy Cohn, was best articulated by the title of the great W.C. Fields comedy, "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break." His world view, made clear in his business record of film-flam enterprises like Trump University, stiffing of building contractors, aggressive litigation and borderline illegal evasions of taxes and debt payments, has been that mankind is divided into "winners" and "losers." The history of his so-called "foundation" shows that his "charities" have amounted to nothing more than tax dodges. Taking advantage of fools is what he does best - that, and taking advantage of the presidency to fatten his own wallet.
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Read up on Timothy Snyder at Yale. What Trump is doing, he calls sado-populism. Democracies are about the future, with different parties having different visions of that future. Elections determine what vision of the future we choose to pursue.
Oligarch-wannabee's like Trump don't want a vision of a better future. They do not want a right leaning vision (free markets) because that would allow people to rise up. And they do not want a left leaning vision (government) because government policies allow people a better future, so they focus on the past (MAGA), intentionally denying the future.
They do this by deliberately creating divisions within the population (think racism, or misogyny). They create policies, much like the insurance scam that Krugman refers to, because that will hurt people. And when people scream, they deflect the blame onto the "others".
With them it is always the "others"; blacks, the poor, LGBT, et. al, claiming that they are shiftless, lazy, or scamming the system. It is a game, built to enrich themselves, pure and simple.
The sadism comes in because these are policies built to willfully, deliberately, and maliciously inflict pain. The oligarchs sell their supporters that their job is not to make their supporters life better, but to protect them from the "others". They assure their supporters that, while their lives will never get better, and that they are going to live in pain forever, the "others" are getting hurt worse. Sado-populism.
" And my guess is that he actually takes pleasure in watching his supporters follow him even as be betrays them." -- just as Sinclair Lewis captured in "Elmer Gantry" so many decades ago, and Burt Lancaster did in the movie by the same name. We've long been forewarned.
I woke up this morning trying to understand Trump's supporters. That's how concerned I am by what he is doing to America and the rest of us. Trump is pathologically ill and the damage he is doing to his own base is obvious. Are they pathologically ill as well? Sure, the retired tea partiers, the rich, and the religious right are getting what they bargained for, but the American worker or farmer? There is something profoundly wrong and unwell here. I have yet to read anything that explains such fanaticism for an obvious demagogue, as Krugman has described him. I read Thomas Edsall's column regularly, and have read Hofstader's famous article on ''The Paranoid Style in American Politics,''but if anyone has any suggestions I would be happy to have them.
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This is reason enough to reject Kavanaugh.. and of course, the dotard is a liar.
There’s a lot we don’t know about Kavanaugh, partly because Senate Republicans are blocking Democratic requests for more information. But we do know he’s starkly, extremely, anti-labor — way to the right of the mainstream, and well to the right even of most Republicans.
The best-known example of his radically anti-worker views is his argument that SeaWorld shouldn’t face any liability after a captive killer whale killed one of its workers, because the victim should have known the risks when she took the job. But there’s much more anti-labor extremism in his record.
I agree that Trump is not a populist, he's a grifter who has managed to convince a significant non-Mensa portion of our populace that he represents their interests even as he robs them blind. That said, I wish the media would stop covering his campaign rallies and his tweets. The best way to handle grifters is to ignore them, and if he continues his attacks on journalists they should just stop covering him
In short, Trump is a "con man" -- pure and simple, and P.T. Barnum was right '' "There's a sucker born every minute". And, all of the "fake news" about Trump is not "fake news" . It's the truth that the gullible refuse to believe. Don't blame the press for bad news. Blame Trump for causing it.
The survival of a democracy depends on a well-informed, educated citizenry. Unfortunately, the average voter is too lazy to become better informed, as well as to learn how to think -- and think critically. They prefer to get their information from television personalities and "reality" TV shows.
This article beautifully exposes Trump's dishonest, outrageous, devastating anti-worker policies. Perhaps most importantly, of all Trump's travesties this is the one making him most vulnerable to losing his support base. But it must be handled properly.
Unfortunately outrage, criticism, denunciation, anger, calling out the lies, and like tactics DON"T WORK. True, these are necesssary, and they do rouse the opposition. So, don't stop. But they don't touch his base. And until that base shrinks, we're in an uphill battle.
The answer is to determinedly push for dramatic positive change -- which these days is coming only from what has been labeled the 'radical progressive left'. Ideally, you want to make changes that people can actually feel. But action is hard with GOP legislative control in the way. Still, you can get close enough through strong advocacy.
When people see a way out of their economic misery, the rhetoric and rallies fade into the background. The con artistry loses its magic.
That people think Trump is tough and a champion of the workers is laughable. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His inheritance would be worth more now had he simply invested it. He’s a draft dodger. He stiffs contractors left and right making up excuses not to pay after the work is complete — yeah, he’s one of those guys. And when his business deals go bad as they usually do, he just declares bankruptcy. By most accounts he hasn’t paid taxes in many years. If you don’t believe it, demand that he, his family, and his organization all release their full tax returns.
This grifter is the populist champion? We need better heroes.
Trump is not just scamming his base, he is seducing a base ready to easily be seduced. Why they have been easily seduced is very much related to the historic levels of income inequality we have reached while at the same time having a corporation like Apple valued at a trillion dollars.
The desperation of people believing that their jobs are being taken away while incomes stagnate is a visceral source of fear easily converted into resentment and hostility , exactly the terrain exploited by Trump. Trump has provided the illusion converted into a perception by his base that their problems can be solved with simplistic solutions , that somehow his solutions will reverse the income inequality that drives them.
His base is attracted to populist rhetoric...which is why they think they are supporting a populist when in fact he is the exact opposite but their denial is typical of the seduced , Love makes people act strangely , and love of Trump makes them act even more strangely !
I've always wondered about "populist" as applied to trump. He's always been an elitist white nationalist. The media is also using "populist" to describe the recent white nationalist movements and leaders of Italy, Hungary, and Poland. I agree that "populism" is being used as a euphemism for "Otherism/Themism", and its a very dangerous strategy for millions for "Others".
"Populist" is the politically correct term for "racist."
Funny, but the only ones not complaining are Trump’s supporters. Do they really care what Krugman thinks? But more importantly, Krugman doesn’t understand them. Unlike the typical Democrat constituencies they’re not looking for someone like Krugman in his ivory tower to feel sorry for them and to give them a handout. He doesn’t know them. They want nothing from the socialist state because they are free men and women, Above all they are loyal to Trump because he shares their patriotic vision of America’s greatness, and they want nothing to do with Obama’s downbeat view of America’s place in the world. They realize that achieving a long range goal of success and prosperity takes personal sacrifice, and they are willing to wait it out because Trump always goes back to the people and keeps his promises.
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And, why do so many people believe the lies and support them? I wonder how much of this reflects a failed education system, a system where too many kids jump the hoops to graduate or slip through the cracks without having a clue how to critically think or the abilities to research what is true and separate the lies.
The Internet is challenging all of us in seeking the truth at the same time it is a great manipulator of how we think. The more closed-minded we become, the more the lies will win.
What strikes me most is how ignorant of actual facts and policy Trump's supporters are. In fact, I can only conclude that somewhere between one-third and one-half of Americans are too ignorant of how the country works to be able to vote responsibly. I'm skeptical that a democracy can survive such ignorance. A democracy is only as good as its voters. Ours just aren't very good.
But to get to Krugman's main point—if the populace is defined mostly by their ignorance and an overwhelming need to inflate their own egos by doing damage to others then Trump very much is a populist. He represents well what so much of America has become.
Populism turns out to be complex. As you say, Mr. Krugman, he does champion ordinary people's causes against the elite. (Loved the article).
The problem is he champions causes that he himself kindled, put a flint to, and then blew on the emerging flames. Populist causes should be farming, labor, wages, safety, the environment. Instead trump brings us racism, xenophobia, misogyny, fear, hatred, and resentment.
He brings us the human flaw of zero sum thinking; that one is losing ground to those around them and that they are not getting their due. And in fact those around them are to blame.
He brings bullying to the people and says it's ok, sure bully people you fear or don't like. He takes it to the level that we dread and expect mob violence against the Free Press. His game was to demean the press so much no one believed them, to make this hatred populist.
He somehow draws lines around elitism that are Machiavellian. He has people believing he isn't an elitist, while claiming he's a billionaire. Billionaires are the Elite!
He spent time at a couple rallies telling the ordinary people that THEY are the elite.
He has brought reality TV morality to the people, and said it's ok to be mad, to be full of revenge, to hate others, and to do something about it. He created his own version of populism. It's not populism, it's man's worse emotions and behaviors wrapped in the American flag and set on fire by a pyromaniac posing as President of our country.
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@TrumpLiesMatter You hit the nail squarely on the head. He has also set up the Republican party to be afraid to take any actions or positions adverse to him for fear that his followers will take retribution at the polls. He revels in his divisiveness and fosters it to enhance his ego.
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And he makes the elites SO angry--which is what really makes his supporters feel better.
@Eileen Which is exactly what the democrat party and Hillary did in 2016 They rigged the primary (that's proven) and excluded anyone who dared defy the Queen.
The greatest irony of Trump supporters is their supposed disgust with "elitism" when they themselves exhibit some of the worst elitism you can imagine. The examples are countless; their belief that their local plumber or mechanic understands climate science better than actual scientists, their belief that they somehow populate the "real" America, their fantasy that while they're out busting their hump the lazy "city folk" are sleeping in til 9 and working a 4 hour day, the list goes on and on. Trump voters truly believe that they are better than the rest of us, yet decry "elitism." Their brains are broken.
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Populism is for people with potential to improve their OWN lives, given a fair chance. Populists don’t destroy government, they direct it to balance power. In contrast, like all oligarchs, his objective is to put government at the service of his overclass to remove upward mobility.
Trump knows his supporters cannot improve their OWN lives, so he promises to spoon feed them jobs and benefits they cannot otherwise earn. His supporters suspect he cannot deliver, but because Trump supporters have no other options, they support him as he coddles their wounded inner child with fairy tales of mining jobs.
So they put their trust in Demi-God Trump to ease their pain, until God calls them home.
I'll agree that Trump is not a populist. Although, technically speaking, we haven't had a popularly elected Republican president since 1988. If you recall, George H.W. Bush was a one term president as well. So far in the 21st century, Republicans presidents are, by definition, unpopular. Only 9/11 saved George W. Bush from a one term presidency.
Here's the thing though: What would you call Trump instead? You can variously sub-categorize most Republican presidents into different political ideologies. However, you'd probably have to go back to Teddy Roosevelt to find one that you wouldn't describe strictly as "G.O.P. orthodox." So where does that leave Trump?
He bribes various political factions when necessary. This is why most of his policy resembles G.O.P. orthodoxy. The tax bill is an obvious one. There's emergency farm aid. The capital gains tax is aimed at donors before midterms. The recurring wall nonsense is a wink at white nationalists. Kavanaugh is another gift to corporate interests. The trade war doesn't make any sense but I assume Trump has some audience in mind. Then of course there's Putin.
None of this is populist. Most of these policies are decidedly unpopular. But what is Trump instead? "G.O.P. orthodox" is certainly not the correct answer. Is "mafia" a governing philosophy? Because that's what Trump most closely resembles: A third-rate mob boss with an abundance of personality disorders.
I agree, but I think we need to stop calling/labeling people that are largely misunderstood and pretentious. What the heck is a populist, an elitist, a whatever? We all have different versions of those definitions. Let's just be clear for a change. Drop the labels and use the appropriate adjectives that everyone can readily understand.
I keep thinking of Ronald Reagan, in one of the presidential debates, shaking his head and saying: "There you go again." This is the only response to Trump's stupidity, perhaps with adding: "Just another lie." As to his venality, the only way to fix it for us is to begin by voting to build a congressional fence around him. Now is the time to dedicate a lot of time to voter registration, in a couple of months will be the time to nag, drag and help people actually vote.
All you pointed out about the consequences of Trump policies for the poor is exactly how it works but I differ in not calling him a populist anymore.
To have a speech, patronizing or insulting the masses in an Evita fashion, coming to power with promises of jobs and a better life for the poor but ruling for themselves like Chavez, is what populists do. They do not do anything for the poor. Populists just talk about it.
Most of all, populists strongmen hate the free press and attacks it. All of the above looks like Trump to me. I will keep calling Trump a populist.
On the contrary, Trump is a classic populist-appealing to the bases instincts of his supporters; acting like he's one of them; insulting outsiders, especially elites; and offering vague promises of some long gone imaginary Eden or return to fake glory; then taking power, establishing absolutist rule and corrupt crony capitalism, with at most crumbs coming down to the masses.
Maybe we have a misunderstanding about Populism. If Populism were good for the population, we would be talking about regular leftist policies. Populism is exactly as it works out in the case of Trump. It appears as if good for the population, but in in fact is the exact opposite and provides at best "cheap" solutions in the form of bandaids. Trump IS a Populist.
Dr. Krugman lays out a very clear argument as to why the current President is anti-worker. However, the question as to whether Mr. Trump is a populist is more complicated. Dr. Krugman claims that Mr. Trump is not a populist by comparing him to the 19th People's Party. By those standards the President is not a populist. However, over the last sixty or so years the term has been used by many historians and political scientists to denote any political movement which deploys a rhetoric in which the movement or movement leader claims to represent a people against a supposedly corrupt elite. By those standards Mr. Trump is a populist.
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The Trump administration represents the true face of capitalism when you strip away all the happy talk about corporate social responsibility. While Trump plays the clown and distracts the media with his antics, his minions in the administration chop away at laws and regulations that protect workers, preserve the social safety net, and safeguard the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat, all the time grossly increasing income inequality to the benefit of themselves and their corporate cronies. Never in the history of our country has there been such blatant thievery to benefit the economic elite. Sad that the populace has been so thoroughly bamboozled.
Most New Yorkers have known for a long time what Donald Trump really is -- and 'populist' comes nowhere near describing it, because he's far too busy thinking about himself to care much for anyone else.
As for all those who have taken the bait and will fight to the death defending him as their working-class champion, it's too late for them.
The thing to remember is just like their leader, they don't represent the majority of this country; which also means there's hope that one day America will be great again...because it isn't now.
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As I recall from reading the works of the eminent historian C. Vann Woodward, the original populist leaders (late 19thC–early 20thC) like Tom Watson garnered loyal followings among downtrodden workers, *and then betrayed them*.
I'd say that, in contrast with Prof. Krugman's view, Donald Trump *is* fitting the mold of historical populist leaders. In that complete and ironic sense, "populist" really is proving to be an accurate descriptor for Trump.
We 21st-century Americans need to revise our understanding of populist movements.
Trump a populist. Never understood that one. Journalists should know better. Presumably they took history courses in college.
There are a lot of "ists" you can attach to a socio-political description of Trump, but populist is not one of them. "Fightin' Bob La Follette must be spinning away in his grave in Madison these days as a result of political circumstances in both Wisconsin and Washington.
Then there are Trump's "populist" cultists. "And my guess is that he actually takes pleasure in watching his supporters follow him even as be betrays them." Same guess here, professor. Do those mobs we see at his rallies really think Trump has respect for them and their needs? Cares about them and their lives when his entire existence has been dedicated to scamming money from working people and transferring it to people who work not at all?
I get why GOP politicians stand behind Trump – he makes them and their puppeteers wealthier and more powerful. But why a working class person would support this man defies logic. I guess the only explanation is hate and fear are more powerful than rational thought and are certainly more easily manipulated.
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@James J, "hate and fear" and misogyny and racism and homophobia and xenophobia. Choose any one or more of it!
@James J
Remember when Wisconsin and the La Follette's were the definition of American populism in the modern sense? Ah, the good ol' days! Now we have Walker, Ryan, and a host of miscreants claiming ownership of a tag they do not understand nor appreciate.
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@James J
Facts: Rich got richer and poor got poorer under Obama.
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Well, PK, at least you’re now on record saying “I don’t know” just once. That is an achievement in itself. Perhaps try this: common people support Trump and his tax breaks because they know - repeat, they know - that tax increases supposedly only on the rich inevitably trickle-down to tax increases for all, especially middle-income folks. Democrats spending more money always end up increasing taxes on everyone. It’s really that simple, and we “deplorables” know it.
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The middle class is still waiting for those Reagan tax cuts to trickle down.
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Not true. I challenge you to google the question: which party is better for the economy. As for this obsession with lower taxes - when your house is on fire, put it out yourself and keep off public streets - those were paid for by my "socialist" taxes.
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Trickle down has never worked. Only conservative dupes believe it does.
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Why would Trump do all the things he's doing to hurt the very people who elected him?
Because Mueller is indeed conducting a witch hunt going after the Warlock Trump and his coven of equally coarse, bungling, maladroit witches (think Betsy and Sarah and Ivanka) and warlocks (think Rudy, Cohen, Manafort, Mnuchin,Pompeo, Jared, Pence, etc.) All being gamed by Master-Sorcerer-In-Chief Putin.
Wikipedia: warlock is a male practitioner of evil magic...The most commonly accepted etymology derives warlock from the Old English wǣrloga meaning "oathbreaker" or "deceiver".
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Aside from New York, California, the media, and late night talk show hosts Trump is very popular with ascending approval ratings.
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I’m an old man and I can’t help comparing the fawning and blind adoration I saw last night in Pennsylvania with a certain dictator in Germany in 1939. False populism with “Make Germany Great Again” bombast while the egomaniac led the unthinking and uncaring off the cliff.
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Paul, I totally agree with your on your assessment of trump and the media. I cringe each time a commentator states he's a great scam artist and the people love him. He is a pathological liar and that needs to be stated with the facts to show how he's lying. With the exception of Fox (not Sam Shepard) the media should all be talking about this destructive person and call him on what he is doing and the effects it will have on their daily lives and future. This morning, Mika stated that trump is unhinged and getting worse by the day. He is in a state of serious mental decline. He is plain dangerous to democracy and the people of the USA.
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Great article!! The one positive thing I can find which Trump has or hasn't done : he hasn't started a war. He is either a coward cloaked up as a bully, or he is waiting to control the Pentagon first.
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Well said, Paul. Well said, indeed.
It's unfortunate that the majority of people who need to hear this message don't read the Times. And the ones who do hear it will say that it's just more fake news from the liberal elitist media.
The time is coming when these good folks will wake up and realize the magnitude of the scam that Trump has perpetrated upon them and their families. Eventually, they will understand that Trump has abandoned them, and that their way of life is gone. All their loyalty to Trump will have been for naught, and will have served only him and his ego, making his theft from the people and his ruination of our beloved country possible. All because they believed his lies.
None are so blind as those who refuse to see.
Can they be forgiven? Perhaps, in time. But it will take a generation for that to happen. And there will remain a core of Trump sycophants who will never see the truth of his treachery, and will continue to support him forever. Well, let them. Ours is a free country. But the vast majority of Americans will never forgive them for voting this monstrosity into office. This is not a Republican versus Democrat discussion. It is a discussion of American values and norms versus the abject, overwhelming insanity of Trump.
And also, it's about the media who focus on this to grow click streams and readership, instead of fulfilling their journalistic obligation to report the truth. There is enough shame here for all.
3
The term neofascist hate monger seems most appropriate when describing Trump.
6
You can't be that naive. Populism is about getting political support by saying what people wan't to hear. Not by actually enhancing their chances to make a decent life for themselves. Trump is the epitome of populism. He sold to the American public what they wanted to hear. He has no idea how, nor intention to actually, work for policies that help them. What in his background indicated that he care about anyone, but himself? Anyone with half a brain could see this. But, I guess allot of people in this country don't have half a brain.
1
"Message to those in the news media who keep calling Donald Trump a “populist”: I do not think that word means what you think it means."
The news media use lots of words that don't mean what they think they mean.
For example, "identity". It means what makes a person unique. But the media use it to mean what groups they belong to: "gender identity", "Christian identity", and a lot of other nonsense.
Or "red". For more than a century it meant the leftist side of politics. Mainland China used to be know as "Red China" as opposed to non-Communist Taiwan. But then the media started applying "red" to conservative states. Liberal states are "blue". Apparently this was the arbitrary choice of a news broadcast displaying an election map and all the news organizations imitated it.
Why did they start referring to a billionaire as a "populist"? Probably picked up the term from elitist organizations they hobnob with.
Kennedy had 'Camelot'.
For Trump, it's 'Scammalot'.
Fake news is real.
Real news is fake.
That the GOP is venal and corrupt, doesn't make the Democrats any better, other than comparatively as a lesser of two evils.
4
I think Krugman is stumbling over the meaning of "populist," thinking that it means a politician who pushes policies that help the masses. Actually, it means a politician whose political success is based on convincing the masses that he has their best interests at heart, typically by demonizing other certain parts of society (e.g., the media, immigrants. And this is precisely what Trump is.
1
It actually does mean something to describe Trump as a populist on the conception of the term that is proposed by Jan-Werner Müller in _What Is Populism?_ On that view, a populist is not a democrat. Rather, a populist is someone who seeks to preserve the political power of the voting bloc that has held the balance in the past. This often serves to maintain factional control—or elite control. In that case, what could be more to the point than Trump’s suggestion, in a recent rally speech, that his supporters constitute the “super elite”?
Trump is not a populist because he represents the economic interests of the average working American. Trump is a populist because he represents the views of the many Americans whose only privilege has ever come from being white.
While the hardships faced by poor white people is not the result of immigration, civil rights gains or increased opportunity for women; the experience of poor white people is that their whiteness is the only safety net that has ever worked for them.
The truth is that the half hearted social programs we have had in this country have not been particularly effective for anyone.
The solution is not only safety net programs that actually work but equal opportunity for people born into poverty regardless of race, gender, national origin, sexual preference.
This will take not only money, and the adoption of policies that provide everyone with equal opportunity, but a commitment by rich white Americans, including those who consider themselves to be liberal, to stop seeing their privilege as a birth right.
1
OK, the credulous media* buys the label he assigned himself and echoing it beyond the evidence of his policies is irresponsible. The bigger question is why does his base continue to believe those policies will be to their ultimate benefit? My sense is that they don't care, their anger at having government work against them for so long is satisfied by the straightforward destructive elements of his administration. Tear it down is all they need.
*(not all media),
2
He uses the word "regulations" as if it were a profanity, never specifying what regulation he's referring to, or even what kind of regulation--financial? Environmental? Whatever necessary enforcement tool he's bashing, the victims of its disappearance will disproportionately injure lower income people.
Case in point: Environmental regulations--weakening rules on pesticides, air and water quality, transportation emissions, superfund toxins and so many more--most of the people who will be endangered by his constant attempt to destroy all environmental protections have supported Trump.
Finally, his pro-life mantra is a total lie. No one in the press should be sucked in by that canard. There is nothing about this man that is pro-life in any way--from children's lives to the life of the planet.
4
There is a perfect term to describe Trump’s brand of politics: fascism. All major aspects of that ideology are present, including attacks on the press, scapegoating of minorities, disrespect for democracy, and a cult of personality. The shoe fits.
6
I call Trump many things. Populist is not among them.
1
Oh please Krugman, just because you're frustrated the dumbest of voters thinks Trump cares about them because he's a deemed "a populist", doesn't mean you get to redefine the word.
Being a populist has never had anything to do with saying or doing anything "for the common man". It has everything to do with exploiting the common man's prejudice, pride and plain ignorance in order to capture and hold power.
Don't pull a Trump here by attempts at "rebranding" with your own personal interpretations of words.
Well, as long as we are going to correct the semantic record of Trump and discard the "populist" label, I would argue that we should also stop saying that Trump is drawn to and has an affinity for leaders (like Putin, Kim and Duterte) who are "strong men."
All three men are either dictators or wannabe dictators and thugs.
Trump's populism was a con job--anyone who has been surprised that the leadership of the GOP has been both enabling of and complicit in keeping the con alive clearly hasn't been paying attention to the fact that so far in this century, Congressional Republicans have made an art form out of passing legislation opposed by majorities of Americans, and beneficial only to a sliver of the minority that backs (and funds) the party--using legislative labels that hide or wildly misrepresent what the legislation actually does.
Truth be told, the semantically correct statement is that we are witnessing a historically epic con job designed to distract us from the systemic looting of the nation by well-heeled thugs and grifters in designer suits.
6
An apt historical analogy would be to compare Trump to PT Barnum...although Wikipedia will tell you that Barnum actually never said that there is a sucker born every minute. Trump's success was not as a developer or casino operator...in fact those endeavors bankrupted him. His true niche is master marketer, a euphemism for his true calling-con artist. He sold his image on TV and sells his name to developers of dubious repute who cannot market their hotels with national brands. He collects money losing golf courses with funds provided by ???
Trump's business model is to manipulate people into believing his schtick. He did pretty well with good ol'Trump U. Not so well with Trump (mis)Steaks. He did far better than he ever dreamed with Trump-Populist-Candidate. He got his lines down pat and commands an audience of tens of millions. He keeps practicing his schtick (he sounds like a rambling lunatic, but he continuously rehearses the lines that got him enough votes to become the most powerful man in the world).
Trump has no interest in any policy or any constituency...his sole motivation is to prove to his ego that he is the greatest con artist of all times. If he gets re-elected you'll have to give him that one.
2
Krugman is right to criticize the use of that term, populist, to describe Trump. A couple of days ago, the WaPo carried an article on a "rift between a president pushing his party toward populism, and establishment Republicans espousing the long-standing policy of free trade." If Trump is not populist--and I agree 100% that he is not--what is he? We can agree that he’s a liar, a performer, a manipulator, and worse. In 2016, Obama described Trump’s words as “…nativism. Or xenophobia. Or worse. Or it's just cynicism." Trump is also a cheap huckster, selling “respectability” at expensive and showy clubs; but at Trump Tower, NYC, he also sells mugs and caps. In one respect, he’s like the gutter press that buys “stories” in order to bury them. Trump buys hope, culture, and intellectualism in order to bury them. Above all, Trump is a product of the crude materialist culture of winners and losers. Winners have more money, more stuff, flashier women, and more golden toilet bowls. Trump clearly believes that he can fool some of the people all of the time. How can such people persist in supporting him, and how might it be enough to re-elect him without some fatal attack on our election?
4
Trump may not be “godly” (his supporters disagree) or interested in protecting labor (very poor choice of example in the article) but he and his successor Pence will pack the Supreme Court and put an end to legal abortion. This is more important to his followers than any sort of social justice, and why they will continue to vote for him against their economic interests.
If the democrats kept their entire platform otherwise the same but adopted just two positions: more protectionism on trade; no more support for illegal immigrants, they'd wipe the floor with the republicans.
Yes, many of the fake democrat upper middle class professionals would switch back to the republican party, but catering to that group has essentially rendered the democrats worthless as a political force. It has not paid any kinds of dividends.
Most people want good and affordable schools, affordable healthcare, and a fair deal in the workplace, and are probably willing to pay a little more for those things, but not at the price of seeing their jobs offshored or their wages threatened by an excessively growing labor pool. This is the problem with the democrats' alliances with Silicon Valley and Wall Street.
Trump is the GOPs dream come true. While he is busy accusing journalists of being enemies of the state the GOP is accomplishing much more of its agenda than it would otherwise. Journalists are enemies of governments that abuse their citizens. Journalists find and write about the evidence. Politicians then accuse them of creating fake news. Until they don't because they can't.
The real fake news here is that Trump will make America great again. No, he won't and he never intended to. Trump is not a populist. He's a con artist, a liar, and dangerous. So is the GOP. They are dangerous to our well being when it comes to jobs with decent pay and benefits, health care, education, housing, basic rights. But time and again Americans fall for these cons. Are we so selfish that we don't want to see anyone outside our economic and social group succeed? Do we honestly think that luck never plays a part in success? We must.
We must think that any person who cannot find a job, no matter what their previous history is, is a failure. We must believe that it's perfectly find to condemn children to poverty for life because we don't appear to care about properly funding programs that can lift them and their parents out of poverty. We must hate ourselves too because we keep on voting against our own interests.
Trump and the GOP are not interested in us. Therefore they are not populists. What they are is selfish, shortsighted, and inimical to our country's best interests.
2
"Why would he do all the things he’s doing to hurt the very people who gave him the White House?"
Because Trump understands that by addressing the emotional, social issues his supporters are focused on, he can provide himself and the 1% all the tax benefits they want without any blowback. The proof of that observation is the continuous ability of the republican party to keep getting elected, despite attacking any and every economically beneficial program for the middle class and actually reducing their benefits. With a Democratic party that for all intents and purposes is an ineffectual communicator to the voting public, Trump's stance is eminently understandable. Until the middle class wakes up Trump will push as far as he can to help the wealthiest Americans. He may not be a populist, but he is the most popular republican and has a non thinking base of support which will enable him to continue to wreak havoc on the country.
5
While Democrats quibble over whether President Trump is a "populist"...
1) Employment is improving.
2) Tax revenues are at record highs.
3) The US is leading the world in green house gas emission reductions.
4) ISIS got smoked like a slab of bacon.
5) Other NATO countries are starting to contribute more to our common defense.
6) Prison reform is near.
Maybe y'all should just chill for a minute and enjoy the re-greatening of America. :)
5
Wages are down, our infrastructure is crumbling, our grid is being attacked by our president's friend, greenhouse emissions rules are being revoked, voting rights are being compromised, and kids were put in cages. Give me a break.
2
Alan, wages were up 2.7%, not down.
1
We agree with Mr Krugman that President Trump should not labelled a « Populist » because his politics mostly benefit the elite while misrepresenting the benefits to the ordinary working Americans. There are too many examples for this.
Except to label his politics as coming from a pathological liar or mentioning any of his other flaws or weaknesses will deter the Trump supporter from further reading. How not to show the reader ones positions as a prejudice against this presidency?
Truly, President Trump is a demagogue ( from the greek « demos » meaning people and « ago » meaning lead or drive), and the label should be use effectively.
Thus, to describe President Trump as a « populist » is not entirely wrong because there is a concentrated effort to appeal to the lower common denominator of his electorate.
Eventually someone will find President Trump is a demagoge of the worst kind manipulating people perceptions to the point where for example, he affirms other facts or interpretations are false news.
1
"You can describe what Trump is doing without using words that give him credit where it isn’t due. He’s scamming his supporters; you don’t have to help him do it."
Oh yes they do. Otherwise they don't get access. It's a race to the bottom on all fronts.
1
What is popular doesn’t translate into what is right. It never has, and never will. This is the biggest problem Trump opponents face; telling children that sugar is bad for you. Donald Trump is a DisneyLand Dad. What child wouldn’t elect to play games instead of having to go to school? In a nutshell, that’s Trumps solution to everything. How should we fight it? Not with solans and candy is bad for you. Reality usually wins in the end when “they”, the so-called Trump supporters realize they’ve been duped. Evolution is slow but terribly effective. The rest of us just have to have faith that Good always triumphs over Evil.
2
Trump is a populist for thieves, racists, NRAs, cheaters, liars, lazy, welfare queens, scammers, anti-female(human), anti-science and now now traitors.
2
Inconceivable.
And right on all counts.
How about "self-styled 'populist'"?
1
Disagree. Trump is a "populist". His "population" = 1 :-) Think about it. Everything he has done is in service of himself, either directly or indirectly to appeal to his "base".
2
Confidence men always pretend to be what they are not. They pretend to be, like a populist, a person interested in your general welfare, willing to sacrifice their own interest to be helpful and act in your interest. They pretend even as they prove to be exactly the opposite - preying upon you, your family, your bank account, your very blood.
Confidence men don't discriminate among men. Anyone is eligible to be one of their suckers. Confidence men are just as thrilled to dupe and rob the man making minimum wage, as the CEO making a minimum million per week. It's not about how much they get from each sucker, it's the thrill of the dupe that gives confidence men a high. They marvel at their own ability to pretend to act in someone's interests while putting a hand on their wallet and a "SUCKER!" sign on their back. Which others, those who are not dupes, see with a mix of amazement and despair.
Confidence men have been around since the beginning of time....and so have suckers. But never have so many been suckered and love'n it.
What is most disturbing about Donald Trump's suckering America is not that he is the lie of a populist...he is; but the truly disturbing fact is the large number of Americans who have volunteered to join his army of suckers.
That's probably facilitated by Facebook, which is also bringing us ripe, right-off-the-vine Russian disinformation. And of course, FOX does its share of disinformation to rope in suckers and keep a vacuous smile on their faces.
3
You can call me Ned, you can call me Fred, you may say I'm soft in the middle, or in head, call me the Restorer of law and order, a poltroon when it comes to the army, a picaresque hero to my band of fanatics, a gay deceiver, a flim-flam man, the leader of the free world, a grifter, a guy with a killer instinct, a too-cool robber baron, you may say I studied diplomacy - a little, not much - and that Vlad is my buddy, or call me a patriot, a defender of the faith when it's convenient, and someone who's looking for a photo op, you can call me your long lost pal, you can call me Al...
2
Here, here!
2
Ok, we can all agree. But it is clear that white workers really enjoy what Trump says. And, since they have been voting Republican for decades now, and since they get all their news from places like Fox, how do you reach them with the truth?
If you can't reach them, then we are done.
3
"I love the poorly educated!". In this statement that Trump made at one of his rallies you have the answer to the conundrum that Prof. Krugman has set....
1
A deeply interesting idea: that Trump is pleased to be getting the better of his supporters, duping them--because of course he's smarter than they are, they're just a bunch of dopes-- into believing he's on their side. It's a dark, nasty thought, and probably right.
And itt's the best deal ever! the greatest deal America has ever seen:
Trick into people voting for you, and give them absolutely nothing!
What a guy! What a businessman! You have to hand it to him.
3
Amen
1
By 2020, enough time would have gone by for the worksers to have noticed the economic impact to vote Trump out (assuming the Dems have a reasonable alternative, strategies and tactics). So, Trump will start a war in 2020. (Iran?)
There is a major disconnect afoot, and it is nicely summed up by the clash between the picture at the top of this op-ed and the content of the op-ed itself. The working man loves Trump, but he is hurting them. Really? I'm frankly tired of democrats and liberals whine about President Trump. I think he is completely unfit for the job, to be sure. But the screeds of the left are not laying a glove on him, and are doing absolutely nothing to change the minds of his supporters. That's a phenomenon I would like to see addressed. Op-eds like this are just sound and fury.
94
@Dino: "But the screeds of the left are not laying a glove on him, and are doing absolutely nothing to change the minds of his supporters." No one is trying to reach his voters, they are unreachable. We are merely confirming with each other that we're not the crazy ones who see and hear Trump's lies and can't understand why his supporters still refuse to believe them and continue to support him despite their own best interests.
2
"The working man loves Trump."
I'm a working man. I don't love Trump. Neither did the greater number of working-class whites who picked Hillary over Trump.
There's kind of a problem, though, with a media and far too many people that are willing to label anyone "working class" as long as he votes Republican, and/or is from the heartland, and/or doesn't have a college degree - and most importantly, is white and a man.
3
@Dino: Many ardent Trump supporters exhibit every characteristic of cult members who want to believe, even, and perhaps especially, in the face of hard facts contradicting their beliefs and feelings. They need de-programming, something that Democrats and other Trump opponenents cannot provide. What op-ed pieces like Krugman's provide, is at least tangible affirmation of the value of facts and the search for truth which requires hard work and honesty and willingness to change one's beliefs if the facts contradict them. That in itself, is a worthy goal already. And any Trump suporter is welcome to read them, if at some point they get curious of what may exist outside of Fox News, Breitbart and conspiracy web sites that offer easy to digest fodder for gullible and lazy minds.
1
"... Trump is a pathological liar, the most dishonest man ever to hold high office in America. "
No. Sorry.
That honor belongs to Bill Clinton.
His lies were just as numerous but far more sinister.
They were just stated more eloquently.
2
Please. Not even close. One who cannot see the lies is unable to discern the truth. Conservatives cannot tell them apart, because Fox News tells them lies are truth.
2
@Objectivist Examples please.
1
Stop calling Bernie a populist.
1
It use to be “the economy stupid.” We are now in the era of just “stupid.” As Krugman has pointed out clearly, appeal to people’s prejudices and an authoritarian could “shoot them” and they’ll still be smiling ear to ear.
4
The media, broadly speaking, has been complicit in Trump's rise to infamy and power. They feed off of each other even as they disdain each other. What the media should do is deprive Trump of all the attention they lavish on him. Stop covering him, period. Of course that won't happen, because the media and Trump need each other. If the media won't stop covering Trump, perhaps the public should take control by turning off all the coverage. Watch The Food Network, HGTV, or a million other things that don't include Trump.
2
Paul stop fueling his fake news claims. Check job numbers, economy, stocks.
Obamacare was a total failure. You avoid any mention of the cost of those failed efforts on the middle class.
4
@Kimbo under Obamacare, more Americans had health insurance than any other time in history. How can you make such a completely false statement?
Rather it is this current administration who are doing everything possible to sabotage the system then turnaround and claim "it's failing."
Please stop repeating trite incorrect propaganda
Why not describe him as elitist?
His " populism" is all about appealing to the worst instincts in his base, those that are racist, xenophobic and anti woman. That hatred runs so deep and has been suppressed for so long that they welcome Trump's invitation to voice it, loudly and proudly. That hatred Trumps the pocketbook . and it makes them oblivious to his lies, using them as stooges to advance his pro business , pro rich agenda at whatever cost to anything and everything America once pretended to be. Trump, the ultimate rich spoiled kid , born on third base thinking he hit a homer can now bask in the humiliation of the elite that looked down upon him and refused to do business with him and the working class he never before had use for. If not so tragic, quite ironic!
Mr. Krugman, perhaps you could take a roller coaster ride, similar to the one you took with Stephen Colbert, with the President. Just 5 minutes on the roller coaster with him for you to teach him the elements of Economics. It would make a pretty poster for one of his golf clubs!
1
It's clear from his actions that Trump "loves the poorly educated", as he says about his ignorant and racist loyalists.
It's clear from his actions that Trump doesn't love labor or working men and women in our democracy. S'wonderful, s'marvelous that people of "a higher intelligence" (another mouthing of our pathological prez) get what's happening to our democracy, even if Trump's low-info base does not. Trump's contempt for the people who voted him into our presidency was never clearer than when he swore he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and get away with it. Never clearer than when he crucifies journalists day in, day out. No one loves a liar more than the liar loves himself. Get it? Got it! Sad.
@Nan Socolow When a con-artist is as transparently shameless as Trump, he is testing for people who deserve to be hosed by him.
The media conflated “populist” and “rabble-rouser.” They’re starkly different terms—Trump is most certainly a rabble-rouser. Populist? Dr. Krugman put the lie to that one. But the media feel some obligation to euphemisms, and populist is less pointed than rabble-rouser, just like “erroneously claimed” is less pointed than “lied.”
2
Paul has been wrong about Trump from the very beginning and it does not stop here. Tax Cuts... My projected tax cut is almost 4 grand No small potatoes to me. Regarding the "rich". I thought we were all entitled to be treated equally by our government. Doesn't that include the wealthy? Equal protection for all except the successful? Paul ignores the latest wage report or he is ignorant of it or perhaps even worse leaves it out. Obamacare raised premiums for the middle class as Paul knows. They had to go up to pay for the newly insured. Paul is a Keynsian. An old failed paradigm of economics. He is still hanging on Get out of the 20th century Paul
4
"The wealthy as victims in America". This sums up the anti-populist, anti-worker, anti-societal position of the GOP for the last fifty years. Throw in the utter selfishness of Ayn Rand Libertarians (I got my tax cut!) and you have just painted us all the perfect picture of conservative Trump hypocrisy.
2
It’s the same populism which prevailed during prenazi era. So called white base is not coming back to Democrats. It’s not changing until the violence occurs which is not too far given Trump’s and Republican’s speeches. America is now divided for several decades because that is what the politicians want. Only hope is that given the changing demographics and economies of the world, it’s not too hard to do the simple mathematics.
1
"Which brings me back to media use of the term “populist.” And pretty much every political label. The press should be much more exact in its use of labels.
1
Trump is no populist but he is certainly popular as an entertainer which is the one role where he does have exemplary talent. Even those who abhor his policies and actions are fascinated by his ability to astound us day in and day out with his ill-conceived actions. He is the greatest boon to late-night television since the debut of The Tonight Show. For most of those reading this it is hard to see him as an evil genius but that is the impact he is having. Whether puppet or puppet master, Trump is doing great harm and we have to somehow get around and beyond the Trump show to connect with the majority of Americans who want a safe, stable country that rewards hard work but also takes care of those in need and DOES NOT direct the majority of its resources to a tiny minority of oligarchs. I believe that is what most Americans want and we have to break through the wall that is Trump himself to achieve a better country.
Trump and the GOP can be summed up very easily and economically: Successfully perpetrating Class Warfare. Or, Predators.
1
Unemployment rates for Blacks and Hispanics have hit new lows.
Factory employment has hit new highs. The situation of the working class has dramatically improved under Trump.
While under President Obama, a so-called, man of the people the opposite obtained. There is a lot about President Trump not to like, but give him credit when he does something right.
3
So-called Trump unemployment merely continues Obama's curves upward. When his trade policies kick in watch the plunge. Everything Trump does is ill-considered at best and malevolent at worst. He has no policies to praise.
1
Donald is most definitely a populist -- due to the support he's gotten (and continues to get) from that segment. Populists like and admire swagger and his standing up to the PC police. He's their man. Middle class populists have little to lose economically (contrary to what many people think), so why should they care what his policies will do to them? They obviously do not care. Now would be a good time to recall the words of PT Barnum.
1
Huh?
The definition of populism is more expansive; Trump is indeed a populist. In his view, it is squarely about what makes him popular, like a rock star is popular.
Actively working to hurt the people whom your constituencies want to hurt, an do so with extreme measures, is also populism. Republicans are absolutely thrilled, as if by a rock star, about the way Trump is going through the country, tearing down everything that his sycophants want torn down (Obamacare, justice, education, health, infrastructure), and installed (an extreme oligopoly with religious police, and the return of Jim Crow).
Populist? Not even human.
4
Lets face it. We are dealing with a fraud.
6
It really is too bad to watch his base blindly support him. It reminds me of Putin's base, they both have this star eyed look on their face when they talk about their Savior.
" Forgive them father, for they know not what they do" Jesus words while on the cross.
2
This is a little off topic but let me ask this question if may.. Has anyone noticed that David Brooks has joined Gail Collins in a sudden vacation from the Times Op Ed section to concentrate on writing a book?. Sounds like they're taking this "political cleanse" that Arthur Brooks wrote about yesterday because the whole news cycle has become obsessed with this endless Trump soap opera. Maybe Dr Krugman should consider doing likewise and focus on another project for a while. Well it couldn't hurt.
Why would you recommend that?! Krugman is a breath of fresh air; reasoned, facts-based analysis of Trump malfeasance and duplicity.
This column is one that should be distributed far and wide, especially to Trump supporters.
Eventually, even many of his die-hard supporters will understand that he's Don the Con and that they've been scammed, or as we like to call it, Trumped!
No, Trump is certainly not a populist. But there is a list of other "ists" that he seems to be, ranging from sadist to nativist to narcissist to atheist to fascist to misogynist. The list of ists doesn't end there by any means.
4
You are basically right. Trump is a bigot, rabble rouser, philanderer, admitted sexual predator, pathological liar, de facto Russian spy ego maniac demagogue incompetent.
He is basically an extreme conservative and not a populist.
The few populist items like trade or immigration, he demagogues them to stir up his small but active bigoted base, instead of coming up with common sense solutions.
3
I think people often confuse "demagogue" with "populist" -- some of that might be the simmering contempt for the populace that is embedded in the political and media elite of this country. Sadly, in the era of the Trump/Putin Regime, that contempt is well-earned.
Trump is certainly no populist, but he most definitely is a demagogue.
5
Trump is using the same playbook that all Fascists use. Pretend to be a populist when you are really only interested in your own power and wealth.
4
Ispent the past two weeks in Ireland, a truly populist country. ( I have dual citizenship and attended a cousin’s wedding -a three day celebration of family and culture- and enjoyed cultural events in Dublin at museums and the great public library.) The Irish cast off in one generation -after a long, hard struggle- the oppressive shackles of British imperialism and the rigid religiosity of Catholicism, and created an enviable social system. They elected two strong women as presidents, and the current leader is a gay man. Major decisions are decided through referendum. The popular vote is preceded by vigorous public debate. They welcome immigrants - a high percentage of whom are African and whose children are born in Ireland and entitled to a wonderful free education.The youth are savvy and highly educated Europeans loyal to their own country and focused on the future.The Irish have problems but craft intelligent solutions. Young and old, they expressed a sympathetic horror and distressed amazement at Trump. “We always liked whoever the American President was,” one waitress said to me. For the first time in my life I felt sad to come home, but we all must unite to combat this menace. We must create a new, authentic populism in the United States and urge cooperation between traditional Republicans, Dems, and Sanders and the Dem Socialists. We are shamed by Trump and his reprehensible enablers. He is no populist- he is an ignorant, destructive demagogue.
499
@Kate: The original American populists were demagogues who ultimately betrayed their followers.
American populism should be understood, not romanticized.
1
@Kate Awesome Kate; move to Ireland. We, too, shook off the shackles of the British, however, we created the blue print of what freedom truly is.
In fact don't listen to an American, listen to a liberal Irishman, Bono, who couldn't have been more articulate:
http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/citizens/bono_speech_at_georgetown...
Wow, I believe Bono more than a President Trump hating waitress. In fact ALL Americans should listen to what Bona had to say.
@Kate
My great-grandmother was from Northern Ireland. Is there any chance I could be granted dual - citizenship ?
Paul,
I'm struck by the way the Right is reacting to the Chinese counter strategy. They're annoyed that the Chinese are targeting the jobs of Trump supporters. In other words, they applaud the President for starting the war but are outraged that the Chinese are trying to win it.
Also, when you say Trump's trade war was poorly planned, don't you think you might be giving him too much credit? My impression is that he launched his trade war the way he does everything - he just wings it.
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"It all started when he hit me back," the movement conservative's motto.
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Most all of the working class people I know feel they are doing better. What don't they understand about a few more bucks in their paychecks and more opportunities at work than they've had for years? I don't see the doom and gloom you do.
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@J Holt because as is typical with republicans and the uneducated is they don't understand the concept of 1 step forward and 2 steps back. They fail to be able to see beyond the here and now. Great, five more bucks in my paycheck, so what if i've lost 50 bucks of government benefits. I got another five bucks right now. These same people screamed about the debt and deficit(they probably don't know the difference between them) 3 years ago, but it's somehow ok to ramp up the deficit for that extra 5 bucks. Doesn't matter if the check is going to come calling in a few years.
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@J HoltWell, if and when they retire or become unable to work they may see it differently. When they see the prices they pay, but not their salaries, increasing, they may see it differently. That isonly the beginning.
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@J Holt Hi, J Holt. Each of s nobviously lives in his own segment of the country in its own regional, local economy so we will experience this middle- working class economy differently. Where we Ilive in New England, it's crumbs and fish-food. The wealthy here are so wealthy it's breathtaking-taking, particularly the young, educated kids. We the elderly certainly don't begrudge them that. They're lucky and they've been given these opportunities and they're taking advantage of them and they work hard, and their gardeners and service persons have good jobs. But that's it. No future economy, no infrastructure, no transfer of resources, no restructuring of the politics, the judicial, almost no nothing for 50 - 100 yrs from now. So same it mayalreadybe too late. We are among those who hope not.
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Depends on the definition of the "populist" but here is my take on it (based on what populists have done in my country):
1. Naive communication - "Crooked Hillary, very bad country". Like a child talking to another one
2. Offer simple answers to very complicated issues. This usually bites back when populists get some influence - then it's time to blame others or play victim.
3. Use hate to gain popularity
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Glad for Krugman's piece. Populism is by definition progressive. people first. Jim Hightower and Bernie Sanders are populists as are labor leaders. Fascists and the extreme right use populist rhetoric but, like Trump, are the very opposite. They are false-populists or, anti-popular corporatists who blatantly misrepresent themselves as candidates in order to gain power because their actual agendas would be rejected outright.
We need the equivalent of a Thomas Nast of the twentyfirst century -- somebody who can pinpoint the rapacious political shenanigans of Trump and his cronies in cartoons or otherwise, so that even the most poorly educated of his constituency will have their eyes opened. It was the political robber baron, Boss Tweed, who famously complained ... "I don't care a straw for your newspaper articles, my constituents don't know how to read, but they can't help seeing them damned pictures." -- referring to Thomas Nast's scathing cartoons of Tweed. But I guess that even a Thomas Nast would just have drowned in today's media cesspool.
1
It would also be nice if the media stopped referring to Trump's "false or misleading" statements, and instead called them what they really are: "lies".
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Trump and his Swamper's latest attempt to cancel security checks on small airlines to save about as much as it costs Trump to play golf is yet another example of Trump's decidedly anti-popularism.
I can't imagine Trump or any of his offspring using these regional airports after security is chucked nor can I imagine Israel, who gets billions from us for airtight protection, doing such a reckless act at the expense of their populace.
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"I guess there is a sense..." of his "embrace of white nationalism"? And you wonder why he fights fake news every day? The rest of your piece lacks credibility when you throw this unsubstantiated retread out there.
"Substantiated by Trump's own words and actions" is what I assume you mean.
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At the end of the day, it’s the economy, stupid. Didn’t you say that a few years ago, Paul?
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I agree that he is blowing smoke about all that he can do for his base, especially jobs, he biggest lie of all. Also, his economic moves are all geared to aid big business. However, there is a significant populist flavor to him. I am using the populist definition of representing ordinary people. He is the first president in many years to speak to the emotional needs of many ordinary people, many whom have felt bypassed by the system. These people often like easy solutions to complex problems such as "all you have to do is put up a wall to save your job and live in a safe environment". He also endears himself with "just tell the world to kiss our a-- and that will bring them to the table". It obviously resonates, and he is not losing his base. Therefore, if the Democrats decide to go with Elizabeth, Bernie or Rahm get ready for four more years of Make America even Greater.
Dear Dr. K.
You can't fix stupid. I should know I have a brother named Epimetheus.
Regards,
Prometheus
“The sons of Iapetus represent four basic qualities of the human character, together with the suffering which comes with them. Atlas, the patient, has to bear and endure. Menoetius, the brave, is overpowered and hurled to destruction. Prometheus, the wise and prudent, is bound, i.e., his effectiveness is limited and a vulture i.e., care, gnaws at his heart. Epimetheus, the rash and thoughtless, is punished by his own folly."
Arthur Schopenhauer
And yet, those poor, hard-working rubes will still blindly vote for Trump.
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The issue isn't whether the press calls him a populist or any other label you can think of. The real issue is all those people who are blinded by the lies he offers and the false promises he makes. They would follow Trump wherever he tells them to go. They have agreed to drink the Kool Aid and they can't get enough of it. But eventually the courts will be filled with conservatives. There will be no more abortions in America (at least legal ones and , lets face it the next step will be the death penalty for illegally obtaining one), all the immigrants that are such a threat will be prevented from coming here and so on. And what will the base get for their blind allegiance? Falling pay ( adjusted for inflation), less health care (if any at all), bankruptcy for trying to get help for addiction or mental illness, the privilege of being able to do the jobs immigrants did, further crumbling of infrastructure, and , I am sure, a good old fashioned war to make that all worthwhile. After all being a soldier will provide you and your children with such wonderful benefits like PTSD, head injuries, lost limbs, depression, and substance abuse. Not to mention the impact all that has on your loved ones. And free college tuition for your troubles? C'mon you know we cant afford that. We have a low corporate tax rate to maintain. You can certainly appreciate that as you struggle to find a job. We thank you for your sacrifice. VOTE.
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Trump has exposed the falsity behind the mantra that his base wants economic prosperity. They really just want to be able to express their racism in public. So they will follow him over the cliff, even as he reaches in and takes every last dime out of their pockets, smirking all the way as he opens his parachute and floats above them to safely. It’s interesting that we no longer hear any pleas from pundits to “understand the other side”. What is there to understand about racism?
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@Frau Greta: Why don't you try defining racism and race since, according to anthropologists who have dug up all those corpses of those who have been the victims of dictatorships over the generations,"race" is not a valid term because it is too vague. And if race is invalid, it follows that there can be no racism, and should be replaced by bigotry or some other term.U r quick to judge our c-in-c ,but reluctant to point out his achievements, including his efforts to support the citizenry, oppose open borders!If you're not against open borders, does that mean you are for them?"What the heck let 'em all in," as Obama used to say. If you identify with the "haute bourgeosie," then you would look down your nose at Trump, "Je vous ai compris," but if your origins are modest, you will support him as the vox populi! Still can't get used to the idea that angriest anti Trump quotes come from those afraid to reveal their names and quartier in which they reside! "Qu'avez vous a cacher?"
@Frau Greta....Racism can be maximized or minimized. There are degrees. People may become more racist due to economic hardship and competition.
Think of the decades the US made progress against racism when our elected govt worked better for the average citizen's benefit and not for big campaign donors. Our middle & working class was once the world's strongest. Then the civil rights movement could move forward.
Now the US ranks behind many other democracies in citizen financial security and worse poverty rates. See the recent new UN report on this, and the Gini Index of intl equality by country.
Trump has used latent racism as a tool, enflaming and amplifying resentments made worse by economic hardship.
@Frau Greta
"They really just want to be able to express their racism in public".
This quote reveals that you have contempt for half of the country. With the lowest unemployment rate among blacks and hispanics, the President's policies are making America Great for everyone.
Good luck with repeating the strategy of smearing all Trump supporters as racists. It was a losing game plan in 2016 is still a loser in the mid-terms and 2020.
Thank you for calling out the media. Yes I agree that Trump is not a populist, however he does cleverly use populism rally his troops. I am especially glad that you are calling out the media for I honestly believe that they are the reason that Trump was elected. It was the hundreds of millions if not billions in free advertising that got Trump elected. In case people have not noticed Trump gets on TV almost every day for free and as anyone who watches can see he takes every opportunity to get his messages of hate and division out. The opposition deserves equal time.
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Repealing the awful regulations of Obama’s has been a home run. My health insurance premiums have skyrocketed thanks to the “Affordable Health Act”. I don’t qualify for any credits.
Thanks to the tax cut, I have hired 2 new employees for my business. Trump has been the antidote this country has needed for over 8 years.
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I have felt really sorry for the Middle Class for a while now, more so since Trump was elected. I just don't understand why they have voted against their interests for such a long time.
The GOP tax bill will probably continue to give the economy a "sugar high" thru this year, maybe into 2019, but it won't stop the next recession from happening. When it does, we can expect it will accelerate the annual Federal budget deficit beyond the current $1 trillion rate. At some point, I suspect that we'll need to have an "adult conversation" about Social Security and Medicare, and with our current trajectory, significant cuts will need to be made, to make those programs last. Of all people who will rely on those programs, many if not most in the Middle Class will be harmed the most by those cuts.
Some have posted here and other places comments like "it serves them right"; I don't wish bad things on anyone, but I wish those in the Middle Class will realize that our current course will not end well for themselves and their families.
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Dr. Krugman is correct. Trump is not William Jennings Bryan. He is, however, a master of populist rhetoric that appeals to class resentment and insecurity.
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I guess they use “populist” as a euphemism for “demagogue”.
I also scrambled for OED: “A person who seeks to represent or appeal to the interests of ordinary people”. Trump “seeks to appeal” to ordinary people, and succeeds, but I think Dr Krugman is right: that doesn't “populist” the right word.
Historically, OED says, “The policies of the Populists included public control of railways, limitation of private ownership of land, extension of the currency by free coinage of silver and increased issue of paper money, a graduated income tax, etc.”
Well, that's definitely not Trump!
“demagogue” is a perfect fit:
“A leader of a popular faction, or of the mob; a political agitator who appeals to the passions and prejudices of the mob in order to obtain power or further his own interests; an unprincipled or factious popular orator”.
Mitt Romney summed it up best:
“Here’s what I know. Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud,” Romney said at the University of Utah. “His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He’s playing the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat.”
No need to parse the meaning of words there.
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@Chanzo: Well done!
@Chanzo But it was Romney who characterized Trump’s mob before it was Trump’s mob, as “takers,” who were despicable. If elected, he might have been much of the same stripe as Trump, only less annoyingly so.
3
@Chanzo.... just compare to worse to make something look good. Romney insulted the 47% who 'don't pay taxes' as exploiting our system. Good that he lost. Now things are so bad, some may wish for Romeny to run and win.
Trump is ruining our standards, and we have to watch out.
The mediocre of both parties are now elevated beyond what they deserve in any democracy worthy of the name.
2
"Inevitably, the burden of these higher premiums falls most heavily on families earning just a bit too much to be eligible for subsidies"
you really need to end it with the lies. Obamacare from day 1 was unusable by a family four just over the cutoff. A family of four making 90K +/- faced Obamacare premiums of 20k+/-.
that is obviously something that family will not be able to afford. It was designed that way from day 1. don't blame congressional republicans. don't blame trump.
that has been the problem since day 1. you and obama didn't care about those people. you built it to care about people making 20k-70k. period. full stop.
1
@alan And who gutted the original Obama plan sothey could bring benefits to the insurance companies and drug companies. The republicans. They wouldn't give an inch to Obama and forced him to accept a plan that wasn't the best but better than nothing.
Get the rot out of your republican bubble and look at the facts.
@Mic p the plan was 100% put together by Democrats. In fact obama said to republicans that “elections have consequences “ with regard to forming Obamacare. It was voted on by 60 dem senators. Enough with the lies.
The correct word is "demagogue", not "populist".
The media uses a colloquial and incorrect definition of "populist" in which all politicians who excite much support of the base or are making popular proposals are called "populists". This terminology issue trascends national borders.
2
At the end of the day Trump is a con artist. A con man loves his ability to deceive his victims. He takes great pleasure in his powers of illusion, like a magician who is constantly finding new ways to fool his audience.
4
Trump compliments his base, basking in their Populist acclaim. When he gets back to the White House he and his posse laugh about conning the rubes at his rallies. He then rewards his fellow millionaires with more tax cuts. He is a Fake-populist. That is the title the press should use.
1
Since Trump keeps saying that all the news media reports is fake news, how about not reporting on what he says and does for a while, since he IS the fake news? Being bombarded by his lies and attacks does nothing to further us as Americans or as human beings...how about a few days of no Trump? A national moratorium on Lies and Fake news? Just a day or so of not providing him with the constant attention he so desperately seek...to prove a point and provide a clear cut difference to life without Trump?
2
You can't present evidence to people who don't value evidence. A lot of Trump's working class supporters appear to fall into this category. Nothing you can say will convince them that he's just enriching the already filthy rich at their expense.
2
While we're on the topic of words, let's stop calling modern Republicans "conservative".
7
Trumps policies may not be populist, but he uplifts the spirits of the under-educated segment of the working class every time he strings words together to utter a poorly constructed sentence. "He talks like me- and he's president of the United States!"
We divide our children between the academically capable and those who struggle at an early age- those children who are slower at mastering elementary grammar, math and science are made very aware of their deficiency, although the issue may be entirely a matter of minds that are developing at a different pace or a different order.
These children end up being victims of a one-size-fits-all mass education system with a life-long debilitating sense of inadequacy.
Trump is the revenge of the un-nerds.
I'm only half kidding. A country eventually pays the price for under serving the educational needs of their children.
2
The average IQ is 100. This is not a good thing for democracy, or democratic education. As a teacher I think we should meet the fact with perseverance and not ignore the difficulty.
1
@William Everdell Yet even those who some took to be the "optimistic" (if too
egg-headed) philosophes of the 18c were quite sure that the "masses" could never be "enihghtened." Guess that's why many of them opted, at best, for the dubious virtues of "enlightened despotism." Of course the well-marketed illusions and profitable deceptions perpetrated by fully-developed corporate/finance capitalism has only made such pessimism more ineluctable in our era.
Donald J Trump is a fascist. He is not a populist. He is not a conservative. He doesn't conserve anything: not even fossil fuels.
Professor Krugman: You need to read your own newspaper’s information more attentively. Republicans supported and voted for Trump. Republicans still support Trump. Republicans will vote for Trump again. Republicans. The ones who vote. And they are the people in the tennis whites and ugly golf pants, looking for deregulation and tax breaks. They are not “the workers.” The workers, the ones who vote, are the most interesting slice of Trump’s support for people like you to write about. But they are a tiny slice. They didn’t elect him. He doesn’t care about them, you are right about that. But: it doesn’t matter.
Paul I couldn't agree more. His cruelty knows no bounds. I think you've hit on the psychopathology of the man when you said that he enjoys inflicting cruelty on the rubes (my word) who cheer him on. It makes him feel big on so many levels to cheat the very people who support him. God knows they deserve him and I engage in a bit of schadenfreude daily, but the long term impact on our democracy brings me back and I feel outraged by it all.
2
I'm guess Kavanaugh would rule that if your loved one died in an aircraft crash you can't sue the airline because your loved one should have known the risks involved before boarding the plane. Roll that one around in your head for a moment.
Wow. This is directly to the point—and as accurate a description of Trump as any I’ve read. Very well put.
3
Call him ‘ The Destroyer In Chief’........
It’s a biblical reference. End times stuff!!!
Trump is a charlatan. Like another charlatan, J R Brinkley in the 20s and 30s, his adorers just keep on believing he is looking after their interests.
1
Trump is a populist. The strange thing is that in the USA we have no labor party. "Workers" such as they are, are defenders of property rights. I guess they all want the right to keep their money, if they ever get rich. Also, up to 1/3 of the population are "haters" or have some twisted and vaguely paranoid views concerning imaginary threats. Added together, all those people constitute perhaps 40% of the country -- whatever Trump's approval rating is at the time.
2
And the media should stop referring to him and his administration as conservatives too. They are anything but that.
1
And Trump supporters can't seem to understand why those of us with a modicum of critical thinking skills can't seem to understand their blind support of a con man. Can't see this ending well for any of us.
2
Please Dr. Krugman, explain this to your publisher. Its time to identify the president, just as you say.
Over and over he's described as milquetoast, neither this nor that.
That's what a populist is, not someone who represents ideas, but who reflects the wishes of the people.
Trump represents ideas. His own. They are nationalist, they favor the very wealthy, and whites. Decisively and consistently. Always.
But really, descriptive pieces about him should begin "the radical white nationalist representative of the ultra wealthy, Donald Trump today... the pro .001% president, while holding a radical white nationalist rally,..."
He is not conservative. He's not a republican. He's not a populist.
Time for the NYT to try for accuracy instead of burying their noses in manuals of journalistic ethics that weren't written for this moment.
In doing so NYT reporters are being dishonest. People are really noticing.
2
You forgot the part where his base thinks he's a populist. Maybe parts of the media call him a populist because they go to his rallies and see the faces of those who egg him on, and say "That's populism."
Trump isn't a populist, but a large part of his base is, and Trump IS a salesman and a performer. He feeds his base speech after speech and rally after rally, with shoutin' and truth-to-power tellin' and immigration bashin' that sells an image of a populist.
So who is at fault for the label? Trump or the credulous voters who buy his shtick? I always wondered who bought all that stuff sold in coupon flyers and infomercials. Trump is the Bedazzled Presidency.
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@Cathy:
Please don't forget that Trump is not honest, and will change decisions at the drop of a hat. Also, it appears he has a monetary debt/situation with the Soviet Union. I've seen many Presidents over the years, but, for me Trump is a disaster and is destroying our democracy. He seems to think he's still in his "Apprentice "show, which is arbitrarily run by one man, not a Congress, or the people of America.
The last thing this country needs is a demagogue who hasn't read the Constitution, and a man who has always puts his needs first. We're losing the safety of our votes, our Democracy, and rational thinking.
It is all a sad story in America , history will judge us the same way we look at the Roman time , 8th century Europe and Scandinavia and say :what happened !
We will also realize how the press and social media play a big role to spread the message, today we all suffered a Trump fatigue and angry for a real news , we personally unplug the tv at night, we are all in the trump melodrama, we owe the peoples before us to continue the progress that were made , with all it's imperfections America is still the place to be , we only need to work on the bail system, give everyone a living wage (around $15.00) single payer insurance, education available to anyone , and we are in a good place again.
1
Trump can be called as a populist leader because he says what people wants to hear. this is one of new political discourses and just because of his policies on middle income or labor rights, Trump cannot be isolated from this trend which is popular all over the world.
Sad , but it seems to me many Trump supporters are willing to take a lot of pain themselves in order to experience the pleasure of seeing others hurt even more.
6
Democrats chafing under the ridiculous and dangerous presidency of Donald Trump always complain, rightly so, about the propagandists at Fox News who help sell the Trump lies to Republican voters.
Many of us are also furious, as is Paul Krugman, at the dereliction of duty by the so-called mainstream media unwittingly enabling Trump’s masquerade to his base as a champion of working-class Americans.
Donald Trump is not now and never has been a populist.
Trump and Republican politicians probably laugh out loud when they hear some talking head on television or read an article by an earnest young reporter using “populist” and “Donald Trump” in the same sentence.
Have we reached the point where America’s best and brightest are either writing code for software in Silicon Valley in hope of creating a high-tech start-up or busily pursuing an MBA in hope of starting a hedge fund?
Is no one with a head on her or his shoulders and a vocabulary going into journalism?
It is as though television network headquarters and the HR offices of large newspapers have signs on their doors: “Persons with college majors in English or history need not apply.”
1
The term itself - populist - seems to have oxymoron characteristics. A poor choice for the media to use. Misleading.
Trump is a populist, if you are referring to the 0.1%, who continue to gain the most benefit from Trump’s taxation policies.
For the rest of the nation, he is just an unhinged individual, given too much power, with the Republican Party no longer able to control his excesses.
Now if Trump moved to raise the minimum wage to $15 this year, that would be populism. There is zero chance Trump will make a policy that helps those most in need, yet his followers still imagine he is their champion, despite his record over 19 months showing he could not care less for anyone not part of his 0.1% elite.
1