New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who just two months ago was calling GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump a "belligerent, loudmouth racist," among other things, on Monday ran a Labor Day column defending Trump from Jeb Bush's attacks over his economic stance, saying that the real estate mogul is "right" on economics.
Bush is attacking Trump as a "false conservative, "
Krugman writes in The Times column, rather than focusing on what is "truly vicious and absurd" about Trump's platform, his "implicit racism" and his plans to round up 11 million undocumented immigrants and deport them.
Instead, Krugman complains that Bush is attacking Trump's stance on matters that deviate from Republican economic theory, including raising taxes for the rich and his support of universal health care.
"The issues the Bush campaign is using to attack its unexpected nemesis are precisely the issues on which Mr. Trump happens to be right, and the Republican establishment has been proved utterly wrong," said Krugman, pointing to the Mitt Romney's failed campaign, when he accused President Barack Obama of favoring redistribution of income.
"So am I saying that Mr. Trump is better and more serious than he’s given credit for being?" said Krugman. "Not at all — he is exactly the ignorant blowhard he seems to be. It’s when it comes to his rivals that appearances can be deceiving. Some of them may come across as reasonable and thoughtful, but in reality they are anything but.”
But he didn't exclude Bush's economic policy from his criticism, either, saying that Bush appears "reasonable and thoughtful" but his economic platform "is pure supply-side voodoo."
Still, Krugman insisted he's not "making a case" for Trump, as "there are lots of other politicians out there who also refuse to buy into right-wing economic nonsense, but who do so without proposing to scour the countryside in search of immigrants to deport, or to rip up our international economic agreements and start a trade war."
Bush's attacks on Trump seem to be falling flat "because the Republican base doesn’t actually share the Republican establishment’s economic delusions," said Krugman. "The thing is, we didn’t really know that until Mr. Trump came along."
Big money donors' influence, he continued, meant that nobody seeking office could proceed without backing supply side doctrine, until Trump came along. Trump is self-financing his campaign, said Krugman, and doesn't need to "genuflect" to big money.
"This is a real revelation, which may have a lasting impact on our politics," Krugman said.
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