When President Donald J. Trump asserted that the United States was at its richest in the early 20th century, between 1870 and 1913, it was a claim that fit neatly into his larger narrative of American nostalgia. It evokes a gilded vision of industrial expansion, boundless opportunity, and economic supremacy. But a closer look at the data tells a different, more nuanced story—one that reveals that while America was rising as an industrial powerhouse, it was far from being at its wealthiest.