His love of gold knows no bounds. And when he promised a new golden age, he wasn't joking. The Oval Office groans under the weight of it - at least the imitation of it.

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

Login or signup to continue reading

A LOL moment in Regime Change, the book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan: "White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt one morning found Trump using super glue to personally attach golden embellishments to the Oval Office fireplace mantle."

The new golden age Donald Trump promised has not materialised, not for the United States and certainly not for the rest of the world. And the original "golden" age, the period of rapid industrialisation after the Civil War, was never known as such.

It was called the "gilded" age because one only had to scratch the surface to uncover the bare metal beneath. For while the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers and Carnegies made vast fortunes building rail and oil and steel empires, their workers were paid miserably for toil in often dangerous conditions. The gulf between rich and poor was enormous.

These billionaires came to be known as the robber barons, for the monopolies they built on rail networks and the oil industry. The pejorative had its roots in feudal times when barons whose lands straddled strategic waterways and mountain passes would charge steep tolls of those who wished to transit.

The 19th century robber barons were finally brought to heel in the early 20th century by the US government, which enacted antitrust laws to break up their stranglehold on vital industries.

No such fear for the 21st century robber barons, the chief of whom inhabits the White House. Donald Trump's newest grift is Truth API. It's a premium subscription service to his Truth Social platform, on which he conducts foreign policy and diplomacy. For a mere $100,000 a month, traders in stocks and futures get a split-second jump on the president's latest announcements. It's insider trading for a fee. Or, put another way, gold-plated corruption.

But it's a mere drop in the ocean of the fortune Trump has amassed while president. The........

© Canberra Times