Krugman says US was on path to a ‘MAGA nightmare’ before Trump
Key Takeaways
- •Paul Krugman published a Substack column on the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks arguing that the roots of America's current political crisis predate 9/11.
- •Krugman contends that politicians and businessmen began exploiting the attacks for selfish political and financial ends almost immediately, a criticism he first raised in a November 2001 New York Times column titled 'Reckonings: An Alternate Reality.'
- •He argues the country's decline was not inevitable, pointing to Barack Obama's election, greater social tolerance than in 2001, and the expansion of healthcare as evidence of moral progress.
- •Krugman defends the COVID-19 policy response, stating that the economic fallout was managed well and that the rapid development of a vaccine was a scientific and medical achievement.
- •In his view, Trumpism brought the country's darker tendencies to the forefront, but these forces had been building for decades rather than originating with Trump's political rise.
Economist Paul Krugman, a longtime critic of President Donald Trump and the far-right MAGA movement, argues that the United States was already “on the road to” a “MAGA nightmare” before Trump entered politics.
In a Substack column published on the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Krugman wrote that the country’s current political crisis had roots predating the attacks. His argument is a retrospective interpretation of the country’s political and social decline, connecting developments before and after 9/11 rather than treating Trump’s rise as the starting point.
“When the Twin Towers fell, it seemed to many like a second Pearl Harbor — a day of infamy, but one that would bring the nation together,” Krugman wrote. “And if you believed that, the state of the nation today must seem utterly shocking. But the truth is that the seeds of where we are now had already been planted well before 9/11. There was an initial façade of national unity, but the ruthless political — and financial — exploitation of the attack began almost immediately … The past two years have been worse than almost anyone could have imagined, but the truth is that we were already well on the road to this MAGA nightmare on the day the towers fell.”
Krugman added that the decline was not inevitable. “It hasn't been an inexorable downward spiral. The election of our first Black president really was a significant moment — the truth is that while there are plenty of haters, overall, we are a better, more tolerant society than we were in 2001. The expansion of healthcare under (President Barack) Obama wasn't just good policy, it represented real moral progress.”
Krugman was a columnist for The New York Times when al-Qaeda attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. He also points to a Times column published on November 21, 2001, roughly two and one-half months after the attacks, titled “Reckonings: An Alternate Reality”.
In that column, Krugman argued that although “the vast majority of Americans” were “resolute and generous” after the attacks, many “politicians and businessmen” were “behaving badly” by exploiting 9/11 for their own selfish ends.
Krugman argues that Trumpism brought the country’s darker side to the forefront. He also defended the response to the COVID-19 crisis.
“Although there has been a concerted effort to smear the policymakers who responded to COVID, the truth is that we managed the economic fallout from that crisis very well, and the rapid development of a vaccine was a scientific and medical miracle,” Krugman wrote. “But the evil now running wild in America didn't begin when Trump descended that escalator. It has been building for decades.”
