This isn't Trump's "Golden Age" -- it's ours

This isn’t Trump’s “Golden Age” — it’s ours
Under Donald Trump’s leadership, Americans are more pessimistic than ever. But there’s reason for hope

By Heather Digby Parton
Columnist
Published February 12, 2026 9:00AM (EST)


(Salon) Even for a president accustomed to making grandiose statements, this one was a whopper. On Wednesday, Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox Business that we are living in “the greatest period of anything we’ve ever seen.” That’s more than a bit vague, but I think we know what he meant.

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We are, in fact, living in an historic time. Americans have rarely been more pessimistic about the future. According to the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index, Americans who believe they will have high-quality lives in five years declined to the lowest level since the organization began asking the question 20 years ago. Those who believe that both their current and future lives are good enough to be classified as “thriving” dropped to 48%. If this is America’s Golden Age, it doesn’t appear to be that people are seeing it.

In fact, the right-wing polling organization Rasmussen asked the question outright and found bad news for the president: Only 27% of those surveyed see this as the country’s “Golden Age,” as compared to 58% who do not. Even more galling to Trump has to be the finding that 48% of voters now say that Joe Biden was the better president. Only 40% said the same of Trump. (A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll similarly reported that 51% favored Biden over Trump, a dramatic — and recent — switch from December, when Trump was on top at 53%.)

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The sight of those Olympians feeling the need — and the freedom — to champion liberal values of diversity, kindness and compassion, as well as opposition to injustice, is a sign that all is not lost. And perhaps the best example of all came on Sunday when global superstar Bad Bunny performed at the Super Bowl halftime show and served up a roaring example of those values before over 128 million people all over the world. The joy expressed in his message of inclusion and universality said more about the America that most of its people actually believe in than any golden monuments to Trump will ever do. ...................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/02/12/this-isnt-trumps-golden-age-its-ours/