Paul Krugman: “It was a peculiar and disturbing speech, partially as a result of it bore no relationship to actuality. Then as now, America had many issues. However runaway city crime wasn’t considered one of them. The truth is, Trump selected to proclaim city carnage after a exceptional generation-long run of plunging crime in our main cities. New York, for instance, had solely 335 murders in 2016, down from 2,262 in 1990.”
“So what was that about?”
“On the time, I assumed it was largely about sadism. Trump clearly loves punishing individuals, so he was wanting to painting a nation full of people that wanted punishing. And it stays true, as Adam Serwer identified again in 2018, that for Trump and lots of of his supporters cruelty is a objective in itself, that they rejoice within the struggling of these they hate and worry.”
“However the occasions unfolding in Los Angeles as you learn this and, I worry, the occasions more likely to unfold throughout a lot of America quickly, fairly presumably this weekend, recommend that the motivations of Trump and his cronies go deeper than mere (mere!) sadism. They need to use false claims of chaos to justify an influence seize that, if profitable, would mark the top of the American experiment.”
