As US Economy Limps Along, Trump’s ‘Golden Age’ Is Surely Just Around the Corner – WhoWhatWhy
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The US economy keeps trudging along thanks to rich people spending lavishly and regular folks having to pay more for the things they need. The promised prosperity, however, is only materializing for those who are already wealthy.
The US economy grew at a pedestrian 2 percent in the first quarter of the year, a record number of Americans say their financial situation is worsening, inflation is on the rise, and the national debt has surpassed the gross domestic product (GDP) for the first time since the end of World War II — but Donald Trump and his Republicans continue to maintain that the country has either already entered a new “golden age” or is on the cusp of it.
However, based on the president’s poll numbers, voters aren’t buying it.
Speaking of numbers, those describing the US economy aren’t good. The GDP was up 2 percent, which is far below what Trump and administration officials have been promising. For example, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick predicted earlier this year that the economy would grow by more than 5 percent.
Things could have been even worse, but companies continued to invest in artificial intelligence — which will likely cause even greater economic tumult down the road — and consumer spending was higher than expected.
Of course, the reason for that is that prices keep going up.
The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, which is the preferred measure of the Federal Reserve to gauge inflation, shot up by 0.7 percent to 3.5 percent in March. That is the highest rate in nearly three years.
In addition, Americans often spend money they don’t have. Four-in-ten of them are worried about not being able to afford their regular monthly bills, and more than a quarter of consumers are concerned that they cannot make their minimum credit card payments.
They are not alone in not living within their means and/or struggling to pay their bills.
This week, we learned that the national debt reached $31.27 trillion in March, which exceeds the entire GDP.
“It’s happened — the national debt is now larger than the US economy, about twice the historic average. We’ve heard plenty of alarm bells in the past few years about our fiscal path, but this one rings especially loudly,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “The real question is whether or not our leaders in Washington will listen.”
They likely will not.
The GOP-led Congress, which pays lip service to fiscal responsibility but then continues to spend like a drunken sailor, keeps finding ways to either spend the taxpayers’ money on wars ($25 billion and counting for the special military operation in Iran) or divert it into the pockets of corporations and the wealthiest Americans.
But at least the uber-rich, led by the president and his family, are doing well, and oil companies are making off like bandits thanks to the high prices they can charge at the pump courtesy of Trump’s war.
So, in a way, the new golden age has arrived… it’s just not here for regular folks.
Klaus Marre, a former congressional reporter, is a senior editor for US politics at WhoWhatWhy. He writes regularly here, and you can also follow him on Bluesky and Substack.