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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Comment
Steven Greenhouse

Troops on the streets, a polarized country and climbing prices: welcome to Trump’s ‘golden age’

people marching at protest with signs such as 'no Ice no national guards in Chicago!' and 'Ice out!'
‘With the nation more polarized than at any time since the civil war, it doesn’t feel remotely like a golden age.’ Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

In his inauguration speech last January, Donald Trump bombastically declared: “The golden age of America begins right now.” Our braggadocious president has stuck to that theme ever since, telling the United National general assembly in late September: “This is indeed the golden age of America.”

With the federal government shut down for more than two weeks, the nation more polarized than at any time since the civil war, political violence growing and the job market slowing, it doesn’t feel remotely like a golden age, unless one focuses on Trump’s Louis XIV-like effort to gild as many things as possible in the Oval Office.

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