Phineas Taylor Barnum, better known as P.T., was an American showman, businessman and politician.

He is best remembered as one of the founders of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus and the catchphrase, “The Greatest Show on Earth.”

Several quotes are attributed to Barnum, either correctly or incorrectly, including: “There’s a sucker born every minute,” “Every crowd has a silver lining” and “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”

Barnum, a master promoter and huckster, died in 1891. If he were alive today, we’re not sure he’d feel the same way about bad publicity, even if some people today seem to be taking that mantra to an extreme unlike any we’ve seen.

But then again, Barnum enjoyed putting on a show and separating crowds from their cash, so maybe he’d approve. We’d like to think, however, that even P.T. Barnum had a line he wouldn’t cross.

Two ugly and reprehensible examples of that have grabbed America’s attention of late and are ongoing.

Karmelo Anthony reportedly stabbed a fellow high school track athlete at an April meet in Frisco, Texas. He was arrested and faces murder charges. Anthony and Austin Metcalf had words when Anthony entered a tent for athletes from Metcalf’s school and Anthony wound up plunging a knife into the other boy’s heart.

You might think that is about the worst publicity a person can bring on himself, but instead of public scorn, some have made a victim of Anthony. A fundraising site has generated more than $500,000 in donations on his behalf. A judge also lowered Anthony’s bond from $1 million to a paltry $250,000. The suspected murderer and his family took up residence in a gated community not long after his release.

But wait. There’s more.

Shiloh Hendrix, a Rochester, Minnesota, mother, allegedly caught a young black child stealing from her diaper bag in a park and berated him, using perhaps the ugliest of racial slurs. When a bystander began filming Hendrix and criticizing her for the slur, the mother — holding her baby — unrepentantly directed a vulgar hand gesture at the camera.

The reaction was swift and overwhelming once the clip made it online. Hendrix was apparently “doxxed” and began receiving threats. Before too long, a funding site appeared with an appeal to help Hendrix relocate her family to “keep them safe.” At last report, Hendrix had reportedly collected more than $600,000.

There is something wrong when being awful means a ticket to untold riches. How did we get here?

It’s not just Anthony and Hendrix who seem to have found that doing bad things can be profitable. Some have turned New York City murder suspect Luigi Mangione — allegedly caught on video assassinating UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson by shooting him in the back on a city street — into a cult hero.

At best, people are turning some of the worst among us into the latest “cause celebre” and at worst, bad people are being enriched and painted as heroes after doing things that should rightly make them societal pariahs.

Maybe P.T. Barnum was right and there is no such thing as bad publicity.

But even Barnum might not have the stomach for what America has become in 2025.