Paul Krugman on Tuesday brushed off the argument that voters are drawn to Donald Trump because his bombastic, anti-trade rhetoric offers them hope for the job market.
Rather, the Nobel Prize-winning economist said the Republican nominee plays to racial tensions among white, low-income voters who blame immigrants and people of color for their financial hardship.
“Economic anxiety is not a very good predictor of who’s a Trump supporter,” Krugman said during an interview on Bloomberg TV. “Racial antagonism is a good indicator of who’s a Trump supporter.”
“We have this delusion that business experience has a lot to do with running economic policy ― they’re just different domains,” Krugman said. “Generally, great businessmen often have no clue about macroeconomics.”
Trump has pledged to dismantle international trade agreements and impose huge tariffs on imports from Mexico and China, potentially sparking a trade war. Trump’s economic policies could throw the country into the longest recession since the Great Depression, according to a June report from economists at Moody’s Analytics.
Indeed, Trump’s candidacy has amplified voices and views ― such as white supremacy and anti-Semitism ― long considered too taboo for the political mainstream. After endorsing Trump, David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, announced his own bid to represent Louisiana in the U.S. Senate. Droves of supposed Trump fans have organized online attacks on Jewish journalists, going as far as to develop a Google Chrome extension that identifies people with traditionally Jewish surnames to more easily target them for harassment.
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