Paul Krugman
Why Trump Is Lying About Disaster
Relief
Oct. 3, 2024
By Paul
Krugman
Opinion Columnist
On
Tuesday, I was part of a City University of New York event about
economic perceptions, which was briefly disrupted by a protester yelling out
that President Biden isn’t helping some of the areas afflicted by Hurricane
Helene. The guy’s politics were unclear — he was also yelling something about
Israel — but it was an indication that Donald Trump’s latest lie has gone
viral.
In
case you missed it, Trump has been trying to exploit the natural disaster for
political gain, claiming he heard that the federal government — Biden — and
North Carolina’s Democratic governor are “going out of their way to not help
people in Republican areas.” This claim has no basis: Major
rescue and recovery operations are underway, and several governors of the
affected states — including Republicans — have praised federal efforts.
Trump said that Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian
Kemp, was “having a hard time getting the president on the phone.” On the
contrary, Kemp said that Biden told him “that if there’s other things we need,
just to call him directly — which, I appreciate that.”
But
then, at this point, Trump’s campaign rests heavily on made-up stuff. And he
clearly seems to believe that he needs new material, because the old material
seems to be losing some of its effectiveness.
Before I get into the disaster relief issue, let me note
that Trump has been a true innovator in political dishonesty. Lots of
politicians have misrepresented their personal histories or the content of
their policy proposals — Trump does that, too. But he has also constructed a
whole dystopian fantasy world, trying to persuade voters that America is a
nation with a collapsing economy overrun by violent immigrants.
In
reality, America has low inflation and low unemployment, and the average
worker’s purchasing power is higher than it was five years ago. Yes, some
Americans are struggling, but that was as true when Trump was president as it
is now.
At
the same time, violent crime, homicides in particular, which rose significantly
during Trump’s last year in office, has come down and
appears to be continuing to fall.
What’s
new is that Trump’s vision of America-as-hellscape seems to be losing its
political mojo. For example, a new Cook Political Report poll of swing
states, while still showing Trump with some advantage on the economy, showed
Kamala Harris tied on the issue of who can best deal with inflation and the
cost of living, and barely trailing on who can best deal with crime and
violence.
So
it must be time to conjure a new fake source of fear and outrage.
Where
does the insinuation that Biden is denying aid to politically unfriendly
disaster areas come from? In part it’s projection: Trump was found to have done
something akin to that when he was in the White House.
In part it involves condemning Biden and Harris for not immediately visiting
the stricken areas.
Biden and Harris, though, were just acting responsibly. In
the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster, a high-profile political visitor
with a huge security detail is the last thing you want — I mean, politicians
aren’t much help rescuing stranded residents and repairing roads, while
accommodating their visit would divert personnel and equipment away from the
urgent task of saving lives and restoring essential services. Former FEMA
officials expressed skepticism about
Trump’s visit to Valdosta, Ga., soon after the storm passed, not only because
he used the visit to politicize a tragedy, but because such a visit “does eat
up resources on the ground.”
But
the temptation for Trump to suggest that Biden was playing politics with his
hurricane response must have been irresistible, because it so closely fits the
template of many of his other claims.
The
key to Trump’s tall tales is to tell his supporters that terrible things are
happening somewhere out there, even if those things aren’t happening to
them or where they can see them. He and JD Vance keep perpetuating claims that
Haitians are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio; not many people have been there
themselves to see that this isn’t true.
He
also says that immigrant “thugs” have taken
over Aurora, Colo., and have taken over hundreds of towns and cities across America,
“Including the big ones,” he says. “Look at New York.” Well, I look at New York
— where immigrants are around 36 percent of
the population — all the time, and what I see is consistent with official crime data: It’s one of America’s safest big cities, a
place where people, including me, walk the streets and take the subway every
day. But many Americans don’t experience daily life in New York and are
prepared to believe that it’s a crime-ridden nightmare — part of a pattern in
which people say crime is a serious national problem, just not where they live.
Views
of the economy show the same pattern. This year a Wall Street Journal poll found
residents of seven swing states believing that the national economy was doing
poorly — but that their own states’ economies were generally doing OK.
Until recently, Trump’s trash-talking of America appeared
to be working politically. As I said, however, at this point his fear-mongering
over crime and the economy seems to be losing traction. So now he’s claiming
that he’s hearing the feds have abandoned hurricane victims, which may persuade
voters who aren’t in a position to witness the huge efforts being
made, under difficult conditions, to deliver essential supplies and restore
communications.
Will it work? I have no idea. What I do know is that it’s
more of the same. Trump is promising to rescue us from dire threats that exist
only in his mind.
Paul
Krugman has been an Opinion columnist since 2000 and is also a distinguished
professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He won the 2008
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on international trade
and economic geography. @PaulKrugman
