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Paul Krugman Continues To Slam Donald Trump On Twitter Hurting His Credibility

7 years ago
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by Gil
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(This post first appeared in Jewish Business News.)

Paul Krugman is not pulling any punches with his criticisms of President Elect Donald Trump. The economist by profession turned liberal political pundit continues to blur the line between being an expert commentator and a political being.

Just look at his most recent Tweets. The one above shows that Krugman is clearly in the “FBI Director James Comey Gave Trump the election camp.” And the New York Times contributor is also holding to the “Vladimir Putin rigged the election” conspiracy theory. Even The White House is dismissive of that one.

And the one below accuses Donald Trump of being no better than a Latin American dictator. This one does go too far.

Paul Krugman was all over Twitter in the days before Thanksgiving to vent his frustration over the election results. In just one day he shot out a series of angry tweets aimed at Donald Trump.

The economist said things like: “We’re about to enter, or may already have entered, an era of corrupt governance unprecedented in U.S. history. What does it mean?”

“de facto personal bribes to the U.S. president. Putin’s Russia or, for that matter, Xi’s China, will be fine with sending huge business.”

“to the profiteer-in-chief. And that will cause a tilt of U.S. policy toward authoritarian regimes. Stay alert.”

“Important to realize that the money stolen by the first family is a minor issue; $10 billion, say, skimmed off the top is rounding error.”

We think that the world has gotten Paul Krugman’s message. Perhaps he is competing with Donald Trump for the record of most angry tweets in a single day.

Plenty of people have already criticized Donald Trump’s choice for Education Secretary given her business record in for profit education. But in the above tweet Paul Krugman devolves into guilt by association.

With this last post, Paul Krugman definitely has a point. It has often been pointed out that rural voters in America who vote Republican tend to vote against their own interests. They do not benefit from tax cuts so much and many are living in poverty and dependent on Federal assistance in the form of Welfare and food stamps.

The problem with what Krugman is doing is that the need for short bursts of content makes Twitter a poor platform for any serious political discourse. He is also doing pretty much what so many have been criticizing Donald Trump for doing; making ad hominem attacks on social media.

Paul Krugman has suffered from a credibility problem for some time now. His position as an important intellectual in America is based on his economic expertise. But his crossing over into the world of political punditry diminishes his authority as an economist.

Now Paul Krugman is belittling himself by getting down into the dirty world of social media sound bites.

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Gil

Gil Tanenbaum made aliyah from New York after he completed college. He Has lived in Israel for over 20 years. He has an MBA from Bar Ilan University and is a contributor for various blogs.

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