In President Trump’s nostalgic musings, he envisions a rebirth of the Gilded Age , that jazzy time when the rich were rolling in it, and everyone else was just trying to survive.

Yes, folks, we’re talking about the '90s… of the 19th century. Picture a world dominated by pompous top hats, rampant inequality, and a laissez-faire attitude that made it easy for tycoons like John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan to buy politicians while most folks were just scrambling for pennies.

Trump is convinced the U.S. was at its peak from 1870 to 1913, a golden age that he believes was defined by heavy tariffs and a booming economy. He’s fond of saying, “We were at our richest from 1870 to 1913. That’s when we were a tariff country”. But nostalgia has a funny way of playing tricks on memory, and economists are calling foul on his fantasy. They assert that the growth was driven by waves of immigrants, industrialization, and yes , a whole lot of exploitation.

Despite his romantic idealization, the reality was grim for the majority. The Gilded Age was riddled with corruption, social inequality, and labor unrest , conditions that eventually stoked up the very movements working to give the common worker a voice.

Trump’s latest fad? Proposing that tariffs could replace the federal income tax. In theory, it sounds glittery. In practice, it sends chills down the spine of anyone who studied basic economics. Just last year, federal income tax brought in about $4 trillion, while customs duties barely scratched $76 billion. Nice try.

Things get even crazier when he channels William McKinley, the 25th President who adored tariffs like they were his favorite snack. Trump idolizes McKinley as if he were some economic wizard when, in reality, he was just part of a deeply flawed system that ultimately led to chronic poverty for many. McKinley tried to spearhead the Tariff Act of 1890, and while it made foreign products pricier, it didn’t quite help the average American. Spoiler alert: it backfired spectacularly.

So, why is Trump fetishizing an era that was only friendly to the wealthy? Because for a man who seems to operate in a different reality, the past is a place where he believes he can find solutions to today’s problems. And while he’s busy dwelling in the past, the rest of us might want to consider how to forge a more equitable future rather than regressing to a time where the rich had it all and the rest of us barely got by.