{"id":569,"date":"2026-08-02T10:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T10:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=569"},"modified":"2026-08-02T10:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T10:42:11","slug":"trumps-promise-of-an-economic-golden-age-collides-with-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=569","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s promise of an economic \u2018golden age\u2019 collides with reality"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

When you surf over to WhiteHouse.gov, you\u2019re greeted with video of inspiring shots of the president and text claiming that \u201cUnder President Donald Trump\u2019s second administration, the United States has surged into a new era of prosperity, marked by record-setting economic growth and trillions in new private-sector investments fueled by tax reforms, deregulation, and a renewed focus on American innovation.\u201d Scroll down the page, and a box appears, prompting you to sign up for a newsletter with the words \u201cWELCOME TO THE GOLDEN AGE!\u201d in all caps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more In \u2018Spider-Man: Brand New Day,\u2019 great power comes with great loneliness<\/a><\/p>\n

There is one room in Washington where a \u201cgolden age\u201d exists: the Oval Office, into which Trump has crammed gilded junk onto every wall and into every corner. But for those who don\u2019t share the president\u2019s gaudy aesthetic, the golden age is nowhere in evidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the Commerce Department released the latest GDP figures, showing that the American economy grew at a 1.5% rate in the second quarter of 2026. That\u2019s not a catastrophe; our economy is both enormous and resilient, and can absorb a remarkable amount of poor decision-making from Washington. But it\u2019s not great either \u2014 and it\u2019s a hundred miles from a golden age.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wage growth is barely keeping up with inflation, which is sitting at 3.5%, well above the Fed\u2019s 2% target. That\u2019s why its rate-setting committee opted to keep interest rates where they are, so too bad if you\u2019re hoping to buy a home anytime soon. The share of GDP going to workers is lower than at any point since the government began measuring it in 1947. Consumer confidence, depending on the survey, is either near all-time lows or merely low.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a recession, at least for now. But Trump has delivered the Meh Economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Given the alternatives, that might not seem so bad. Trump\u2019s economic stewardship has combined bad ideas familiar from previous Republican administrations (e.g., tax cuts for the wealthy) with some ill-considered policies of his own. There\u2019s his erratic tariffs, which have cost consumers billions and slowed economic growth. He has waged war on green energy, one of the fastest growing sectors of the world economy. <\/p>\n

The Republicans\u2019 Big Beautiful Bill is causing millions to lose health coverage and food assistance, while food banks struggle to meet demand. His crackdown on immigration, on top of its moral failings, has been an economic disaster in multiple ways including worker shortages in key industries, lower income from tourism and fewer international students coming to boost the U.S. economy. To top it off, his absurd war in Iran created a global energy crisis and sent gas prices spiraling upward.<\/p>\n

This is the president who got elected because people were mad about inflation, and said on the campaign trail, \u201cWhen I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on Day One.\u201d In the story he told, inflation would disappear (it hasn\u2019t), tariffs would bring a manufacturing boom (they haven\u2019t), and everyone would thank him for creating such boundless prosperity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Possible $100,000 fee for foreign graduates is as stupid as it is xenophobic<\/a><\/p>\n

They certainly aren\u2019t doing that. In a new CNN poll, 65% of respondents said Trump\u2019s policies have made the economy worse, while only 22% said they\u2019ve made the economy better. In Nate Silver\u2019s polling average, Trump\u2019s net approval on the economy is -27.7%.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s answer to that disgruntlement is to just tell people they\u2019ve never had it so good. \u201cWe had the best economy in the history of our country in my first term,\u201d he said recently. \u201cWe\u2019re blowing it away now, despite our little diversion to the lovely country of Iran \u2026 the economy is booming.\u201d<\/p>\n

His aides, rather than lie quite so obviously about current conditions, will say that good times are right around the corner. \u201cI think 2026 is going to be a blockbuster year,\u201d said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last November. \u201cYou\u2019re going to see the greatest growth the United States of America has ever seen,\u201d said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in December. When the year began, Lutnick said that growth in the first quarter would be 5%, and exceed 6% by year\u2019s end. First quarter growth was actually 2.1% \u2014 not bad, but nothing like a blockbuster.\u00a0 \u201cWe really could be looking at numbers north of four, north of five, north of even six\u201d percent growth, National Economic Council Chair Kevin Hassett said in May.<\/p>\n

This is not the first administration that has struggled to convince voters their economic policies are working (remember the Obama administration\u2019s \u201cRecovery Summer\u201d of 2010?). What distinguishes this White House from its predecessors is how ludicrous its claims about the present and the future are. In a career as a real estate developer, TV personality and purveyor of small-time grifts, the president learned that there is power in lying about the facts and promising the moon. But an administration can only get away with that for so long. And since people experience the economy in their own lives, the picture the White House paints has to have at least some relationship to reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If it doesn\u2019t, Americans may decide that not only can\u2019t they trust what the administration says, but that the president has no idea what he\u2019s doing. There are a lot of ways to measure the economy, and some of them (like the stock market) even look pretty good, even as many others look mediocre or worse. But a \u201cgolden age\u201d? To believe that, you\u2019d have to be the kind of sucker Donald Trump has always depended on.<\/p>\n

Read more Joe Scarborough: Trump\u2019s tech takeover shows it\u2019s GOP \u2018practicing socialism,\u2019 not Democrats<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not a recession, at least for now. But the president has delivered the Meh Economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump\u2019s promise of an economic \u2018golden age\u2019 collides with reality - Long Distance Movers USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=569\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump\u2019s promise of an economic \u2018golden age\u2019 collides with reality - Long Distance Movers USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s not a recession, at least for now. 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