For years, Joe Scarborough has made his living by spinning Trump=Hitler analogies. And in the run-up to 2024, Scarborough warned that if elected, Trump would "rip to shreds Madisonian democracy."
So it was shocking to watch Scarborough sing a very different tune today. In a conversation with David French, Scarborough now says that Americans "are doing better than ever before."
And not just in material terms. According to Scarborough, "Americans have more civil liberties than they've ever had."
What? We thought the dark night of authoritarianism was overtaking America. How can we have more civil liberties than ever before if Trump is plotting to extinguish elections, stifle all dissent, rip democracy to shreds and proclaim himself Strongman for Life?
Scarborough claimed to have a "pet peeve" regarding people who say that America is in a "death spiral." That "so-called death spiral" is, in fact, the "biggest lie," according to Joe.
Does Scarborough lack all self-awareness? For years, he has been in the doomsaying vanguard. If Trump is Hitler, plotting to become a dictator, and a threat to Madisonian democracy, how can Americans simultaneously be "better than ever," specifically in terms of their "civil liberties?"
Until demonstrated otherwise, we'll assume that today was an aberration, and that Scarborough will soon be back to his catastrophizing of all things Trump.
Note: Scarborough was echoing a David French column in the New York Times, which argued that America, alarmism notwithstanding, is not in a "death spiral." Interesting that Joe is so impressionable as to abandon his long-held position that America is on the brink of disaster.
Here's the transcript.
MS NOW
Morning Joe
12/15/25
6:40 am ETJOE SCARBOROUGH: David French, I wanted to talk to you about, I mean, you wrote a just incredible column.
It's been one of my pet peeves, not just during this administration or the last, but for the past 10, 15 years, where whoever's in the White House, the other side says the United States is in a death spiral and we will never [recover].
I said it during the first Trump administration, despite the fact I had a lot of issues with his policies. I said it in the Biden administration, and I'm saying it now.
This so-called death spiral that people say that we're always in, and now you have the right saying, you know, oh, David French is weak because he doesn't think we're in a death spiral. It's the biggest lie, if you just look at facts.
And I understand a lot of people don't like looking at facts, but as you point out: today, Americans live longer. They've got higher wages. They live in bigger homes. They have more civil liberties than they've ever had. Violent crime, for all the talk about crime, for the most part, is at 50-year lows.
. . .
I read a statistic, and you talked about it. Divorce is way down from its high in the 1980s, abortion way down. You look globally, global poverty at an all-time low.
On one thing after another, if you just look objectively, if you just look objectively, and not whether there's a drag queen reading at a public library. If you look objectively at how Americans are doing, not just materialistically, but in so many other measurements, health, wealth, well-being, far from a death spiral. For the past 10, 15 years, we've been doing better than ever before.
