In President Donald Trump’s idealized framing, the United States was at its zenith in the 1890s, when top hats and shirtwaists were fashionable and typhoid fever often killed more soldiers than combat.
It was a time of rapid population growth and transformation from an agricultural economy toward a sprawling industrial system, in which poverty was widespread while barons of phenomenal wealth held tremendous sway over politicians who often helped further grow their financial empires.
“We were at our richest from 1870 to 1913. That’s when we were a tariff country. And then they went to an income tax concept,” Trump said days after taking office. “It’s fine, it’s OK. But it would have been very much better.”
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