POLITICO Nightly: Another day in Trump’s ‘golden age’

 

By Ben Jacobs President Donald Trump meets with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance listen in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on Monday, April 7, 2025. | Pool/AP NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY — It may not seem like an idyllic time after the imposition of massive tariffs that have caused global markets to tank and fueled fears of a recession. But for President Donald Trump and his most devoted supporters, it’s an article of faith — America has entered “a golden age.” It’s an assessment made by Trump sporadically during his first term in office. And during his general election campaign last year, it became an occasional promise of things to come. But from the moment the president was sworn in for his second term, the notion has hardened into fact for him and the MAGA movement: his return to office marks the apogee of American accomplishment. From the first words of his inaugural address in January — where he announced “The golden age of America begins right now” — the phrase has been inescapable. Trump has reiterated the point over and over since returning to the White House, even ending his March address to Congress by insisting "the golden age of America has only just begun.” On average, he has evoked the phrase personally about once a week since taking office. It’s also become a staple of White House press releases . The idea that Trump has ushered in a peak period of prosperity, achievement and happiness in America has suffused MAGA world as well. Almost every right wing influencer uses “the golden age” as part of their branding online. When freshman Rep. Brandon Gill introduced legislation to put Trump on the $100 bill, he dubbed it “the Golden Age Act of 2025.” The question is how long it will last. Traditionally, golden ages are declared in retrospect. Going back to Greek mythology, the idea of a “golden age” is tied to a vanished era from the past, when things were better. The height of Athens’s power and influence in ancient Greece was “the Golden Age of Athens.” In modern times, storied classic movies from the height of the studio system are referred to as coming from “the Golden Age of Hollywood.” At one point, even the Veterans Committee for the Baseball Hall of Fame had a category of players to vote on from “the Golden Era” of the sport, which it defined as the 1950s and 1960s. Trump’s preemptive declaration of a contemporary “golden age” has left him a giant rhetorical hostage to fortune. The phrase has already slowly but surely popped up in the press releases of the Democratic National Committee and Democratic affiliated groups like The Lincoln Project as a way to taunt the president —- before the rapid collapse in the markets. Even Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, has described the imposition of tariffs as “spoiling America’s Golden Age” in a post on the social media platform X. However, regardless of the country’s economic trajectory, it’s likely the “golden age” moniker will continue to be used by the MAGA right, regardless of whether it is borne out by events or not. It’s not just Trump’s fondness for the color gold, which suffuses all his properties and even his redecoration of the Oval Office. Nor is it even the fact that he has committed himself by offering an entire line of “Golden Age of America” merchandise for sale online. Instead, it is his rhetorical style to recycle his key lines so frequently that they saturate the news cycle and permeate the culture. Trump’s experience is that skepticism about grandiose claims can be overcome through sheer repetition — after all, if you don’t think America is experiencing its golden age, you most assuredly don’t believe it has been made great again either. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at bjacobs@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @Bencjacobs .   Cut through policy complexity and turn intelligence into action with POLITICO’s Policy Intelligence Assistant—a new suite of tools designed to save you time and demonstrate your impact more easily than ever—available only to Pro subscribers. Save hours, uncover critical insights instantly, and stay ahead of the next big shift. Power your strategy today— learn more .     What'd I Miss? — Trump, defiant on tariffs, claims trade deals are in the works: President Donald Trump barreled forward with his ongoing trade war today, saying that his administration is making progress toward deals with international partners in an effort to calm markets and show that his tariff plan is working. As those markets enjoyed a small reprieve this morning, Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previewed what they claimed would be major deals coming in the next few days between the U.S. and South Korea, Japan and Vietnam, as well as other “big trading partners.” — Musk’s taunts at Navarro expose deeper rift in Trump coalition: The extraordinary spat between Elon Musk and Peter Navarro is exposing the divisions within MAGA’s new, big-tent coalition . It’s a fight that has been brewing quietly for months. The trade war is now not only bringing it into the public’s view, but also inflaming it. The two figures — one, the world’s wealthiest man but a relative newcomer to the Trump orbit and the other, a trade protectionist who is so loyal to the president that he went to prison for him — began a squabble over the weekend that spilled into a crass social media exchange Tuesday. Musk, in a series of posts on X, called Navarro “dumber than a sack of bricks” and “Peter Retarrdo,” an escalation from his weekend criticisms of Navarro’s Harvard PhD. The feud, though juvenile, is in many ways a proxy for more substantive divisions within President Donald Trump’s coalition. — DHS revokes parole for hundreds of thousands who entered via the CBP One app: The Trump administration is revoking parole status for immigrants who entered the U.S. via the Biden-era CBP One app, in a push to get immigrants to voluntarily leave the country. “Under federal law, Secretary [Kristi] Noem — in support of the president — has full authority to revoke parole. Canceling these paroles is a promise kept to the American people to secure our borders and protect national security,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told POLITICO in a statement. excerpts:  Some immigrants began receiving formal email notices from the DHS on Tuesday stating that the department would be using its discretionary authority to revoke parole. The move could leave over 900,000 immigrants vulnerable to deportation. The CBP One app, launched in January 2023, was one of the Biden administration’s key efforts to control illegal immigration, by organizing appointments at different ports of entry along the southern border for immigrants seeking asylum. The parole designation protected immigrants from deportation and also issued work authorizations for up to two years. The parolees designated under United for Ukraine — which provided legal status for Ukrainians affected by the war — and Operation Allies Welcome — which resettled Afghans following the U.S. exit from Afghanistan — will not be affected, DHS added. ****BRAVO ASSOCIATED PRESS!***** — Trump must reinstate Associated Press to White House press pool, judge rules: A federal judge has ordered the Associated Press restored to the White House press pool after President Donald Trump banned the wire service for refusing to adopt his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” The ruling from U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, requires the White House to return the AP’s access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and other limited spaces, whenever those spaces are made available to other journalists in the White House press pool. “Under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists — be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere — it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints. The Constitution requires no less,” McFadden wrote. ****ANOTHER CONTROVERSIAL NOMINEE CONFIRMED!**** — Senate confirms Trump’s controversial pick for Pentagon policy chief: The Senate confirmed Elbridge Colby, President Donald Trump’s controversial pick for Pentagon policy chief, today in a win for the increasingly vocal wing of the GOP that wants the U.S. to focus on China rather than Europe and the Middle East . Colby’s contentious nomination highlighted a foreign policy rift inside the Republican party. The hard-nosed realist has often clashed with traditional defense hawks, who worry his laser focus on Beijing comes at the detriment of other priorities, such as the Ukraine war.  — Top commander, in potential clash with Pentagon, warns U.S. troops should stay in Europe: Republican lawmakers — and the commander of U.S. forces in Europe — argued today against withdrawing troops from the continent, clashing with a potential Trump administration plan. U.S. European Command chief Gen. Christopher Cavoli told the House Armed Services Committee that he’s “consistently recommended” keeping the same troop levels since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. “It’s my advice to maintain that force posture as it is now,” he said. His comments, echoed by some top Republicans, follow reports that the Pentagon is weighing removing up to 10,000 troops from Eastern Europe. And they showcased increasing public tension between the Trump administration and GOP defense hawks over the military’s role abroad. AROUND THE WORLD Palestinians receive bags of flour and other humanitarian aid distributed by UNRWA, the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip on April 1, 2025. | Jehad Alshrafi/AP ****ISRAEL LIED! VIDEO CONFIRMED ISRAEL'S LIES!**** TARGETED & KILLED MEDICS! FURTHER REVIEW REQUIRED — The Israeli army’s killing of 15 humanitarian workers in Gaza last month must be investigated, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said today. Asked about the deaths of the emergency workers in south Gaza on March 23, Starmer told members of parliament: “There’s got to be an investigation into that.” The Israeli military has been criticized for killing the medics and for changing its story around the incident. It claimed Monday the killings had occurred “due to a sense of threat,” and that six Hamas militants were near the incident, according to Reuters. A more in-depth investigation is still being carried out, the military said. Its latest statement came after it initially claimed unmarked vehicles were fired on in the dark. A video recovered from the mobile phone of one of those killed later emerged showing clearly marked ambulances and fire engines seemingly contradicting that claim. CROSSING BORDERS — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said today that Kyiv’s forces have captured two Chinese nationals who were fighting alongside Russian troops . “We have information that there are much more than two such Chinese citizens in the occupier’s units,” Zelenskyy added. Officially, China has claimed to be impartial about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, calling for a “peaceful and diplomatic resolution of the conflict.” But in February 2022, a few weeks before the Kremlin’s troops launched their all-out assault, Moscow and Beijing announced a “no-limits partnership deal.” According to Zelenskyy, the two soldiers were captured in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and possessed “documents … bank cards, personal data.” Nightly Number 1.6 percent The amount that the S&P 500 dropped today after wiping out a gain earlier in the day of 4.1 percent, which had the index on track for its best day in years. That brought the index nearly 19 percent below its record set in February. RADAR SWEEP COWBOY UP — There’s no doubt about it: the cowboy is back in vogue. Beyoncé won album of the year in February for a 27-track, genre-bending country record. Over its five-season-run, Yellowstone, a show about a family of ranchers, has attracted more viewers than any other show on television. Now, TKO, the parent company of UFC and WWE, is hoping to cash in on America’s cowboy craze , by acquiring PBR, the Professional Bull Riders league. Dubbed the “most dangerous eight seconds in sports,” bull riding is almost made for the attention economy, writes Anika Jade Levy for GQ. Parting Image On this date in 2013: Margaret Thatcher dies. Thatcher, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, is pictured here in 1987 as she waves to supporters from Conservative Party headquarters in London after claiming victory in Britain's general election. | Gerald Penny/AP Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh   Follow us

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