Trump's 'craziness' has left America far behind in coronavirus response: Paul Krugman

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has written a scathing assessment of President Donald Trump's response to the coronavirus outbreak, which he links directly to the president's consumption of conspiratorial right-wing media.

In particular, Krugman points to pundits such as Rush Limbaugh who have claimed that the virus is no more dangerous than the common cold and that the media is only hyping it up to bring down the president.

"But not to worry, say right-wing pundits and news organizations: It’s all a hoax, a conspiracy by the liberal media to make Donald Trump look bad," he writes. "Administration officials and Trump himself have echoed their claims. These claims are, of course, crazy."

Krugman then argues that this right-wing "craziness" has resulted in Trump not taking the virus seriously, as he dismisses the opinions of experts in favor of talking heads he sees on Fox News.

"Recent reporting makes it clear that one major reason the U.S. has lagged far behind other countries in testing for the coronavirus -- an essential step in containing its spread -- was that Trump didn’t want to believe that there was a crisis," Krugman writes. "After all, recognizing that we face a serious problem might hurt his beloved stock market. This desire to minimize the danger to the market distorted the whole government response to the outbreak."

Read the whole column here.