Maybe. But it’s not the one Trump thinks it is.
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.
Trump has always bragged incessantly about himself and his alleged accomplishments. But ever since he returned to the White House in 2025, he’s been touting his presidency as a “Golden Age,” even going so far as to make the expression tangible by slapping gilt on everything in sight. He genuinely believes he can change reality simply by relentlessly stating something as fact in the face of all evidence to the contrary. His repeated insistence, though, that the country has never been as successful as it is today has so far landed with a thud.
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 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%.)
Some of these findings are no doubt driven by partisan swings according to who is in the White House. But these polls are finding that even Republicans are feeling pessimistic, despite all of Trump’s happy talk. In fact, I would think that his portrayal of the country as having never been better sounds downright delusional to even some of his ardent supporters.
All this despondency appears to be having an effect on the GOP leadership. Trump and his acolytes have been sent into paroxysms of anger by the mild criticisms offered by American athletes at the Winter Olympics. When skier Hunter Hess had the temerity to say “Just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.,” the president called him a loser and said he shouldn’t have tried out for the team. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X, “Raise your hand if you think Olympic Skier Hunter Hess should be disqualified off the U.S. Team.” That idea got a ringing endorsement from Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who posted, “If you can’t stand up for your country while abroad—at the Olympics or otherwise Stay home.” Podcaster Megyn Kelly said that “Hess should be stripped of his ability to rep the USA & sent home.”
Many of Hess’ fellow athletes have made similar comments, reflecting the overwhelming attitude among the majority of young people in America who are deeply pessimistic about the country. Their messages weren’t about the price of eggs or worries about getting ahead. If there was one overarching concern, it was about being perceived as endorsing the hateful behavior and attitudes the world is seeing acted out under the leadership of the Trump administration every day.
“I’m racing for an American people who stand for love, for acceptance, for compassion, honesty and respect for others,” cross country skier Jessie Diggins wrote. “I do not stand for hate or violence or discrimination.” Chris Lillis, a freestyle skier, said, “I feel heartbroken about what’s happened in the United States. As a country we need to focus on respecting everybody’s rights and making sure that we’re treating our citizens, as well as anybody, with love and respect. I hope that when people look at athletes competing in the Olympics they realize that that’s the America we’re trying to represent.”
Those are values that these young Americans hold. But it isn’t just young people. Rich Ruohonen, who at 54 is the oldest man to ever represent the U.S. in the Winter Olympics — and happens to hail from Minnesota — gave a spirited speech during a press conference explicitly calling out the authoritarian tactics deployed by the Trump administration in his home state, while simultaneously declaring his love for his country and its freedoms. As of Tuesday, not one American participant in the games had stood up for Donald Trump or his policies.
There have been protests before at the Olympics, and they were always met with angry denunciations from the right. Their reflexive reaction to anyone suggesting that America isn’t perfect has always been “Love it or leave it.” But Trump, with his own constant carping about the United States both at home and abroad, has turned that notion sideways. While the president often proclaims that things have never been better, his endless insults and criticisms of his fellow Americans actually convey the clear impression that the country is a chaotic mess of mutual loathing and factional hatred. No wonder everyone is so pessimistic.
This is a change. America has certainly had its dark periods, and there were no doubt times that the people felt the future was grim. But for the most part, America has always been an optimistic nation, with the future beckoning a better day for everyone. The proverbial image of the U.S. as a “shining city on a hill” once resonated with immigrants who came to this country believing that here was a place to build a better life for themselves and their families.
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.
The right’s cramped vision of American greatness, with its sour, white nationalist ideology and cruel authoritarian methods, is a good reason to be pessimistic. But the resilience of the American people from Minneapolis to Milan is telling a different story. For all of our gloom about the future, it appears we aren’t giving up. Perhaps the Golden Age really is upon us after all. It’s just not the one Donald Trump thinks it is.
Salon
