A Nobel Prize-winning economist issues a startling warning about what it will take for the U.S. to move on from Trumpism and the Make America Great Again movement in a new Substack video on Sunday.
Paul Krugman, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2008 for his work on trade theory, said in the video that America's inability to address growing wealth inequality and the underlying conditions that brought President Donald Trump to power could wreak havoc on the nation if they are not addressed after Trump is out of office. His comments came at a time when several political analysts and observers have noted that Trump appears to be suffering from a significant mental decline, one that makes him more dangerous than previous presidents who aged in the White House.
"It’s not really a surprise to find out that he has lost his mind, what was left of it," Krugman said. "And yet, he is in power. People who did a lot to put him in power did so, knowing this — the billionaires who contributed vast sums of money to his campaign, the Supreme Court which gave him immunity back in 2024 — they all knew who they were doing this for."
"They understood what they were doing," he added. "Now, maybe, even they are getting a bit of cold feet as he goes over the edge and as we’re starting to see in Iran and elsewhere what happens when you have a lunatic running the United States, a lunatic who has far more power than a previous president because all of the normal institutional safeguards have been short-circuited or dismantled."
Krugman noted that there needs to be an intentional "deMAGAfication" effort in the U.S. after Trump leaves office. He noted that the effort will be difficult, but it is necessary to address the "hugely unequal power, hugely unequal wealth that made this horrific moment possible."
"It’s not going to be easy, and maybe it’s not going to be doable, but we have to try because this is a nightmare," Krugman said. "This is a nightmare beyond, I think, even the worst fantasies of progressives, beyond the worst fantasies of conservatives who still have a conscience."
"This has to be turned around and we should not, above all, whitewash or forget this moment," he continued. "This is where a lot of forces in America have been leading and if we don’t do something beyond just getting rid of Trump, it’s going to happen again."
Learning from a Mentally Ill President by Paul Krugman
We need to deal with the powers and system that put him in power and keep him there
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