Troops on the streets, Ice thuggery – and prices still climbing: welcome to Trump’s ‘golden age’ | Steven Greenhouse

The president has repeatedly proclaimed a shining moment. Meanwhile, he's taking a wrecking ball to truth and democracy

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.