Donald Trump’s portrayal of himself as an “ally of working Americans” is his “biggest and potentially most consequential con” in what a columnist and Nobel Laureate calls the former president’s “lifelong career as a con man.”
Supporters who believe Trump “is anything but pro-working class Americans” are not his first victims, writes New York Times opinion columnist Paul Krugman, who began his Monday op-ed by listing Trump’s various business schemes that left investors on the hook financially – “even as he profited” – including students paying thousands of dollars for worthless courses and contractors left unpaid.
“But Trump’s biggest, potentially most consequential con has been political: portraying himself as a different kind of Republican, an ally of working Americans,” Krugman wrote, adding that the spate of racist remarks at the former president’s New York City rally “may dent that support in the campaign’s closing days.”
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“The truth is that to the extent that Trump’s policy plans — or, in some cases, concepts of plans — differ from G.O.P. orthodoxy, it’s because they are even more antilabor and pro-plutocrat than his party’s previous norm,” he wrote.
He noted that reasonable estimates of the effects of Harris and Trump’s tax plans show that Trump would raise taxes on most Americans, with only the top few percent coming out ahead,” while Harris’ plan would do the reverse."
“So, no, Trump isn’t a friend to working-class Americans; quite the opposite,” he wrote. The columnist added that the millions of people who believe otherwise "probably reflects racial tension."
“White men without college degrees have lost ground relative to other groups since 1980, and some of them, alas, surely feel an affinity for the racism and misogyny we saw at Madison Square Garden,” according to Krugman’s op-ed.
He closed by warning that he believes few people realize that “Trump’s anti-worker agenda will be much broader than anything he managed to do in 2017-21.”
