Krugman notes that Jeb Bush, once the front-runner for the nomination but since ousted by Trump, has started attacking his rival not on his “absurd and vicious” stance on immigration, but instead on “precisely the issues on which Mr. Trump happens to be right.”

He also suggests that, unlike some in the Republican field, Trump understands that some things President Obama has done have helped the economy:

I’m not saying that everything is great in the U.S. economy, because it isn’t. There’s good reason to believe that we’re still a substantial distance from full employment, and while the number of jobs has grown a lot, wages haven’t. But the economy has nonetheless done far better than should have been possible if conservative orthodoxy had any truth to it. And now Mr. Trump is being accused of heresy for not accepting that failed orthodoxy?

So am I saying that Mr. Trump is better and more serious than he’s given credit for being? Not at all — he is exactly the ignorant blowhard he seems to be. It’s when it comes to his rivals that appearances can be deceiving. Some of them may come across as reasonable and thoughtful, but in reality they are anything but.

As you might guess, many in the right-wing world who are anti-Trump seized on this column to prove that Trump is not a good option for the Republican party.

I heard a thousand pro-Trump voices cry out – and they were suddenly silenced. https://t.co/Ya8Rv4dHAy

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 7, 2015

Guy who admires Paul Krugman-approved candidate schools other Marxist somehow. https://t.co/J7irz7iZRh

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) September 7, 2015

Building a bipartisan coalition for Centralized State Strongman Cronyism http://t.co/5G8WaxEZT4

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) September 7, 2015

Krugman ends his column by making it clear he in no way endorses Trump.