A Nobel-winning economist just sounded the alarm about Republicans winning the midterms

Nobel prize-winning New York Times columnist Paul Krugman responded to one of President Trump’s tweets today with an ominous warning about what could happen even if the Democrats do manage to win back majority control of the House of Representatives.

Trump sent out a cynically hypocritical tweet warning that the government was carefully watching for signs of voter fraud in the upcoming midterm elections and admonishing American citizens to “cheat at your own peril.” Given that reported instances of actual voter fraud have been minuscule, while Republican voter suppression efforts and Russian social media manipulation are already frightening and dangerous realities,

Trump’s tweet struck Krugman as a veiled prophesy of his future actions if the Democrats win back the House as expected.

Given that the Trump administration can barely lay claim to its own legitimacy with its loss of the popular vote and the albatross of Russian and Saudi electoral interference that tainted the results, it would not be at all surprising to see the president employ this tactic, as he regularly accuses his opponents of the very things that he and the Republican party themselves are most guilty of in a transparent act of defensive projection.

If this is the good scenario, then heaven help us if we have to face any of the worst-case versions of the dystopian future.

Krugman’s spot-on assessment of the response the administration will take once a Democratic majority in Congress enables them to dispense with the phony investigations led by the current Trump lackeys on the House Intelligence Committee and really get to the bottom of the corruption in the Trump White House and in the preceding electoral campaign is both frightening and highly likely.

It’s good that Krugman is tempering expectations of exactly what a Democratic victory in the midterms will mean going forward. It won’t be an instant cure for the evils of the Trump administration. Trump has already demonstrated his contempt for the rule of law multiple times, so it makes no sense to think that he will suddenly start to play by the established rules just because the democratic process says he should. Even with a massive victory at the polls, expect the struggle to continue. He won’t go down without a fight.

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Vinnie Longobardo

is the Managing Editor of Washington Press and a 35-year veteran of the TV, mobile, & internet industries, specializing in start-ups and the international media business. His passions are politics, music, and art.