Fool’s gold: Trump’s promise to America is not going to plan

August 3, 2026 — 11:58am

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Who would have thought? The eurozone economy, derided by Donald Trump as a declining economy heading in the wrong direction, outpaced the US economy in the June quarter.

The eurozone economy grew at an annualised rate of 1.8 per cent in the quarter; the US economy 1.5 per cent. Canada, hit hard by Trump’s tariffs, grew its economy at a 3.4 per cent annualised rate in the quarter.

Europe’s growth rate was its fastest in more than a year, despite the continuing energy shocks emanating from Trump’s war in the Middle East and his tariffs.

In the US, growth slowed from the 2.1 per cent rate delivered in the first three months of the year, despite the continuing boom in artificial intelligence-related investment, lower oil and gasoline prices during the ceasefire in the war on Iran and a surge in spending by wealthier Americans (and some assistance from the World Cup) in June.

So much for the “Golden Age” for the US economy that Trump, his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have repeatedly promised would arrive this year.

So far, the only gold is to be found in the White House or on Washington’s monuments, where Trump has been gilding anything and everything he can, or in the wealth being accumulated by the Trump family and their associates.

‘I don’t have inside information’: How Donald Trump Jr is cashing in on dad’s presidency

The US economy would probably be running a lot hotter, if not for the war in the Middle East and the global war on trade that Trump keeps trying to find a legal basis for.

Along with the data on GDP that was released late last week, the Commerce Department published personal consumption expenditures (PCE) data for June, which showed that the US Federal Reserve Board’s preferred measure of........

© The Age