WISHFUL THINKING
THEY ARE THE CONFEDERACY
A supporter wears an apron with Trump's picture before Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Rocky Mount Event Center in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, U.S., October 30, 2024. REUTERS/Jay Paul
In a Tuesday column, Thomas Krugman noted that even the most powerful organizations, like the Heritage Foundation, can fall and it's emblematic of what could also happen next to MAGA.
The anti-fan of Heritage, Krugman noted that the far-right group has gotten far worse over the past several months with the group's embrace of neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes.
However, Krugman continued, "It turns out that even at a fundamentally corrupt institution like Heritage, there are lines you can’t cross.”
In the last month, the organization has experienced a flood of staff resignations from what Krugman calls "the marginally competent" and those who have "a reputation to protect."
Heritage President Kevin Roberts remains in his role. Krugman observed Roberts thinks that he can "ride out this storm," though he added: "I don't believe they can."
The Nobel Prize-winning economist asserted that the Heritage Foundation isn't exactly known for its credibility in the broader political world. Until now, he wrote that its role in the conservative movement had been "provide an intellectual gloss by producing what looked to the gullible — i.e., many people in the news media — like credible research.”
But now even the group's perceived credibility has disappeared, Krugman said.
"Now that its illusion of credibility is gone, what is Heritage good for?” Krugman wrote, noting that there was little point for the group's millionaire and billionaire donors to continue funding the organization. He added that the MAGA movement doesn't need "any genuine policy research," and argued that voters instead go off their gut. President Donald Trump doesn't need.
Krugman wrote that neither President Donald Trump nor the next leader of the MAGA movement needs "expertise, or even the illusion of expertise."
“What the debacle at Heritage suggests, however, is that many of these fellow-travelers have limits," he explained. "There are lines even corrupt institutions can’t cross without provoking mass defections. And such defections are, I believe, how MAGA will eventually be relegated to the dustbin of history."
He fantasized about what a MAGA takedown might look like: a mass exodus of Republicans who trash-talk Trump behind his back, finally finding the pluck to go public and withdraw their support.
"I don’t know what form their defection would take," Krugman confessed. "Would it involve a serious effort to wrest control of the G.O.P. back from extremists? Would it involve elected Republicans cooperating with Democrats? Would it mean leaving the G.O.P. altogether? America hasn’t seen a new major political party emerge since, well, the rise of the Republican Party in the 1850s, but this doesn’t mean it can never happen again."
But what he can say is that he doesn't believe it wise to assume that MAGA will survive after Trump. The non-MAGA Republicans likely won't stay quiet forever, particularly "in the face of ever more extreme corruption and bigotry at the top of their party.”
Read his full column here.
A supporter wears an apron with Trump's picture before Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Rocky Mount Event Center in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, U.S., October 30, 2024. REUTERS/Jay Paul
December 30, 2025
ALTERNET
In a Tuesday column, Thomas Krugman noted that even the most powerful organizations, like the Heritage Foundation, can fall and it's emblematic of what could also happen next to MAGA.
The anti-fan of Heritage, Krugman noted that the far-right group has gotten far worse over the past several months with the group's embrace of neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes.
However, Krugman continued, "It turns out that even at a fundamentally corrupt institution like Heritage, there are lines you can’t cross.”
In the last month, the organization has experienced a flood of staff resignations from what Krugman calls "the marginally competent" and those who have "a reputation to protect."
Heritage President Kevin Roberts remains in his role. Krugman observed Roberts thinks that he can "ride out this storm," though he added: "I don't believe they can."
The Nobel Prize-winning economist asserted that the Heritage Foundation isn't exactly known for its credibility in the broader political world. Until now, he wrote that its role in the conservative movement had been "provide an intellectual gloss by producing what looked to the gullible — i.e., many people in the news media — like credible research.”
But now even the group's perceived credibility has disappeared, Krugman said.
"Now that its illusion of credibility is gone, what is Heritage good for?” Krugman wrote, noting that there was little point for the group's millionaire and billionaire donors to continue funding the organization. He added that the MAGA movement doesn't need "any genuine policy research," and argued that voters instead go off their gut. President Donald Trump doesn't need.
Krugman wrote that neither President Donald Trump nor the next leader of the MAGA movement needs "expertise, or even the illusion of expertise."
“What the debacle at Heritage suggests, however, is that many of these fellow-travelers have limits," he explained. "There are lines even corrupt institutions can’t cross without provoking mass defections. And such defections are, I believe, how MAGA will eventually be relegated to the dustbin of history."
He fantasized about what a MAGA takedown might look like: a mass exodus of Republicans who trash-talk Trump behind his back, finally finding the pluck to go public and withdraw their support.
"I don’t know what form their defection would take," Krugman confessed. "Would it involve a serious effort to wrest control of the G.O.P. back from extremists? Would it involve elected Republicans cooperating with Democrats? Would it mean leaving the G.O.P. altogether? America hasn’t seen a new major political party emerge since, well, the rise of the Republican Party in the 1850s, but this doesn’t mean it can never happen again."
But what he can say is that he doesn't believe it wise to assume that MAGA will survive after Trump. The non-MAGA Republicans likely won't stay quiet forever, particularly "in the face of ever more extreme corruption and bigotry at the top of their party.”
Read his full column here.
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