Racket News

Racket News

Share this post

Racket News
Racket News
No, New York Times, You Don't "Deserve Better" Than Donald Trump.
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More

No, New York Times, You Don't "Deserve Better" Than Donald Trump.

Trump should spare us all and retire. But his antagonists' lack of self-awareness keeps giving him oxygen

Matt Taibbi
Nov 19, 2022
∙ Paid
1,548

Share this post

Racket News
Racket News
No, New York Times, You Don't "Deserve Better" Than Donald Trump.
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
963
Share

Among the predictably enormous quantity of horrified responses to Donald Trump’s campaign announcement this week, the New York Times editorial board handed down a beauty: “America Deserves Better Than Donald Trump.”

Is that true? If the question is if Donald Trump should be president, even I’ve been clear from the start the answer is no. But deserve? When the Times reaches for a word like that, they complicate what should be a simple question. Does the Times editorial board deserve President Trump? As William Munny put it with a bullet in Unforgiven, deserve’s got nothing to do with it.

Trump was elected in 2016. That’s a fact. The American political establishment has since refused any honest reckoning about how or why it happened. The closest the Times came to an explanation in this week’s editorial:

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Racket News to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Matt Taibbi
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share

Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More