Donald Trump’s “Golden Age” of Corruption and Cronyism
The phrase “golden age,” in a political context, conjures the flowering of democracy, philosophy, literature, and art in ancient Athens. But Trump himself just likes the color gold. Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower are lousy with gilt. It’s a fitting decorative obsession for our new Gilded Age, a phrase coined by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their 1873 novel of the same name. The novel is about the buying and selling of government officials in Washington, D.C., during a moment in history (1870-1900) that remains, even at this late date, the single most corrupt period in American political history. Ironically, the corruption was not generated by what Trump today calls “the swamp,” i.e., the civil service, which didn’t even exist until the 1880s. It was generated by Congress and by the same political cronyism that Trump is trying to, well, resurrect.
“The scales of justice will be rebalanced,” said the president. “The vicious, violent and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end.” That’s not what Kash Patel says, but never mind. Trump’s point is that his crucifixion was also the country’s. “My recent election,” Trump said, “is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal and all of these many betrayals that have taken place.” Two paragraphs later, Trump shifted more explicitly to the Passion of the Trump. “Over the past eight years I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250-year history,” he said. But instead of bitching about his felony rap, Trump invoked his assassination attempt, thereby conflating in listeners’ minds his entirely justified prosecution with a madman’s evil attempt to kill him. “Just a few months ago.” Trump said, “in that beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear. But I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.” This delusional and borderline blasphemous statement brought him a standing ovation in the Capitol Rotunda.
Trump described various imaginary crises in his speech. He said he’s declaring “a national emergency at our southern border,” which, as The New York Times notes, has been fairly quiet since now-former President Joe Biden effectively halted asylum claims in June. Trump said he’s directing his cabinet “to defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices.” The inflation spike ended nearly three years ago, inflation is currently below 3 percent, and (incidentally) any economy where “costs and prices” come down across the board is by definition a failing one.
