Liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has come to terms with the Electoral College voting in Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States, ushering in a “new normal” in which America is no longer the country “we knew and loved.”
“So it’s official, and it’s vile: the loser of the popular vote installed by Russian intervention, a rogue FBI and epic media malfunction,” Krugman tweeted Monday.
So it’s official, and it’s vile: the loser of the popular vote installed by Russian intervention, a rogue FBI, and epic media malfunction.
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 20, 2016
“We should never accept this as OK,” Krugman added. “It may be the new normal, but that’s a new normal in which the America we knew and loved is gone.”
We should never accept this as OK. It may be the new normal, but that’s a new normal in which the America we knew and loved is gone
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) December 20, 2016
Krugman has repeatedly pinned the blame for the Trump victory on FBI Director James Comey’s pre-Election Day reopening and then closing of an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s alleged meddling in the election process. The media, he said, has been “objectively pro-Trump.”
Last week, Krugman said that even if a Trump presidency could not be prevented, Americans should reject the results of the election, which he claimed would be “normalizing the subversion of 2016.”
“Even if Trump can’t be stopped, we need any constraints on his actions we can find — and threat of public outrage is really all there is,” he said on Twitter.
“Plus, the chance to turn things around in future elections does depend in part on not normalizing the 2016 assault on democracy,” he said in another tweet. “[A]nything that enhances future chance of turnaround is essential — which means not forgetting and normalizing the subversion of 2016. You can’t put this back in the box, and trying to do so just makes the horror of the situation worse.”
Another tweet from Krugman was interpreted by some as suggesting that Trump might be planning to stage a large-scale terrorist attack on the U.S. to help legitimize his presidency.
“Thought: There was (rightly) a cloud of illegitimacy over Bush, dispelled (wrongly) by 9/11,” he wrote on Twitter. “Creates some interesting incentives for Trump.”
Krugman’s suggestion of “incentives” led to Trump calling Krugman “demented” at a rally Saturday.
