In his second term as President of the United States, Donald Trump is pushing a bold and controversial agenda that is essentially the blueprint for a new Gilded Age. With a cabinet composed of an unprecedented number of billionaires and policies aimed at enriching the wealthiest Americans, Trump’s vision for the country prioritizes corporate profits and the consolidation of power among business elites, leaving the working class to grapple with the fallout. His plans to eliminate income tax in favor of tariffs, coupled with significant investments for tech oligarchs, underscore his desire to reshape the nation’s economic landscape in ways eerily reminiscent of the late 19th century.
A Cabinet of Wealth
From the outset, Trump’s administration has stood out for its embrace of extreme wealth at the highest levels of government. With thirteen billionaires appointed to top roles — a historic high — Trump has surrounded himself with individuals whose fortunes dwarf those of most nations. The newly appointed Treasury Secretary, hedge fund magnate Scott Bessent, is a perfect example who symbolizes the administration’s preference for financial elites to oversee policies impacting millions of Americans.
This concentration of wealth in the executive branch reflects Trump’s admiration for what he considers to be the golden age of American prosperity, explicitly citing the period from 1870 to 1913 — the Gilded Age — as the model for his presidency. While the original Gilded Age was marked by extraordinary economic growth and industrial innovation, it was also a time of staggering inequality, rampant political corruption, and the brutal exploitation of working people.
Eliminating Income Tax: A Radical Shift
One of Trump’s most audacious proposals is the elimination of federal income taxes, to be replaced entirely by tariffs. He has announced the creation of a new agency, the External Revenue Service (ERS), tasked with collecting tariffs from imported goods. This move echoes the federal government’s revenue strategies of the Gilded Age, when tariffs provided the bulk of government funding and the federal income tax didn’t exist yet.
Who wouldn’t want want an automatic 30% bump in take home pay? especially if it doesn’t mean a necessary cut to social services and important programs. Sounds great, right?
Not so much. The fact is that the cost of tariffs get on foreign imports basically always get passed onto to us, the domestic consumers. So taxes aren’t going away. Rather, they’ll simply shift from an income tax to a tariff, which is really just a national sales tax dressed up in phony foreign policy muscle.
And while Trump touts this plan as a way to reduce the tax burden on American workers, critics warn that tariffs function as a regressive tax. That means not only will the income tax shift to an unofficial national sales tax, but that tax (like all sales taxes) will disproportionately impacting lower- and middle-income households by driving up the cost of goods. The burden of funding the government will shift even further away from the wealthy than it already it is, and onto ordinary Americans, who will pay more for imported essentials such as food, electronics, and clothing.
Trump’s administration has also unveiled a $500 billion investment initiative aimed at bolstering the tech industry. The plan prioritizes projects led by tech moguls, promising massive returns for Trump’s wealthy billionaire buddies while offering little to the broader population. Additionally, Trump has floated the idea of declaring a national emergency to provide artificial intelligence (AI) companies with unlimited energy access. This would allow U.S. firms to compete with China’s DeepSeek R1 AI system, which has rather suddenly revolutionized energy-efficient computing and upset U.S. tech stocks, without having to increase energy efficiency.
Environmentalists and economists alike have raised concerns about Trump’s strategy. Critics argue that prioritizing corporate profits over energy efficiency risks exacerbating climate change while neglecting investments in sustainable technology that could benefit all and provide solid working class jobs.
What Was the Gilded Age Like?
The Gilded Age was a time of immense wealth for a small elite but hardship for the majority of Americans. Sound familiar? Of course it does. Industrial magnates like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie amassed fortunes while workers labored for long hours in dangerous conditions for meager wages.
During the Gilded Age, income inequality reached staggering levels. The richest 2% of the population controlled over a third of the nation’s wealth while the bottom 40% owned none. That has doubled today. In a process that started under the Reagan administration and continued apace ever since, the top 1% of U.S. households now (as of the first quarter of 2022) hold approximately 31.3% of the nation’s wealth. In contrast, the bottom 50% possessed about 2.6% of the total wealth.
we need to be ready to do what we can to throw wrenches in the gears of the system in order to prove our collective power and put the billionaires back in their place.
For the working class, the Gilded Age was defined by strikes, labor disputes, and violent crackdowns on union efforts that coordinated between the state and private corporations. Child labor was rampant during this time, housing conditions in urban areas were generally squalid and poverty ridden, and there were few if any safety nets for those who fell through the cracks of the corrupt economic system that clearly favored the wealthy.
The Implications of Trump’s Policies
During his first presidency, Trump already played a role the decades long neoliberal project of replicating the economic disparities of the Gilded Age. Now, current policies risk significantly exacerbating that trend. By removing income taxes and relying on tariffs, the cost of living for average Americans will rise significantly, eroding purchasing power and increasing financial strain. It’s an ironic move considering how many people voted for Trump because they were so certain he would reduce the cost of eggs. Meanwhile, billionaires and large corporations stand to gain the most from his tax cuts and investment of our tax dollars in their private, for-profit ventures.
Moreover, the emphasis on rapid technological advancement at any cost — including environmental sustainability — mirrors the Gilded Age’s prioritization of profit over social responsibility. Without robust protections for labor, wages, and the environment, the U.S. will see an even bigger resurgence than we already have when it comes to exploitative practices that harm the majority for the benefit of a privileged few.
The original Gilded Age brought “innovation and growth,” but it also highlighted the dangers of capitalism and extreme inequality. Trump’s agenda, with its focus on enriching the elite and dismantling protections for ordinary people, not only risks but is a blatant attempt at recreating these conditions. To avoid repeating history, policymakers and citizens have to fight back. We need to advocate for balanced economic strategies that prioritize fairness, sustainability, and the well-being of all Americans over the interests of the few, and we need to be ready to do what we can to throw wrenches in the gears of the system in order to prove our collective power and put the billionaires back in their place.
