Trump Suggests That Andrew Jackson, A Slave-Owner, Could Have 'Worked Out' The Civil War
In an excerpt from a SiriusXM interview that was released on Monday, President Donald Trump betrayed a stunning ignorance of American history with a series of remarks about Andrew Jackson and the Civil War.
After admitting that he asked "When was Andrew Jackson?" when people first started comparing him to the seventh President of the United States, Trump suggested that Jackson "had a big heart" and would have somehow prevented the Civil War if he'd "been a little later."
These three quotes seem to be inspiring the most disbelief and outrage:
"He was a very tough person, but he had a big heart."
At the time of his death, Jackson owned 150 enslaved people on his plantation, the Hermitage. He also signed the Indian Removal Act, which drove tens of thousands of Native Americans from their land and forced them westward on the death march known as the Trail of Tears. Describing such a man as big-hearted seems callous and ignorant at best.
"He was really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War. He said, 'There's no reason for this.'"
Jackson died in 1845, 16 years before the Civil War began.
"People don't ask that question, but why was there the Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?"
As every single American learns in elementary school, the Civil War was fought over slavery.