Donald Trump believes the Civil War could have been avoided if slave owner Andrew Jackson had lived longer.
Jackson, son of Irish immigrants Andrew and Elizabeth Jackson, had 150 slaves when he died, up from 9 when he took over his residence called “The Hermitage” in Tennessee
He didn't just enjoy the fruits of having slaves, he had earned the name “Indian Killer” from Indian tribes.
Andrew Jackson recommended that troops systematically kill Indian women and children after massacres in order to complete the extermination. As historians noted “The Creeks tribe lost 23 million acres of land in southern Georgia and central Alabama, paving the way for cotton plantation slavery. His frontier warfare and subsequent ‘negotiations’ opened up much of the southeast U.S. to settler colonialism.”
Read More: Irish Andrew Jackson - his life and times
Andrew Jackson was about as likely to stop slavery as Jefferson Davis was. Subjugation, foot on the neck stuff was his modus operandi. Trump has shown himself indelibly ignorant by such a proposition.
He made the comments in an interview that airs today on Sirius XM's P.O.T.U.S. station:
TRUMP: [Jackson] was a swashbuckler. But when his wife died, did you know he visited her grave every day? I visited her grave actually, because I was in Tennessee.
ZITO: Oh, that's right. You were in Tennessee.
TRUMP: And it was amazing. The people of Tennessee are amazing people. They love Andrew Jackson. They love Andrew Jackson in Tennessee.
ZITO: Yeah, he's a fascinating...
TRUMP: I mean, had Andrew Jackson been a little later, you wouldn't have had the Civil War. He was a very tough person, but he had a big heart. And he was really angry that -- he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War. He said, “There's no reason for this.” People don't realize, you know, the Civil War — if you think about it, why? People don't ask that question, but why was there the Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?
He has been making a bigger ass of himself than normal lately.
The only way a civil war could have been prevented was to allow slavery not just in the south but across America as the south was seeking in the new territory. Lincoln would not stand for it. Trump no doubt would have cut a deal
He recently asked why Palestinians and Israelis could not get along, the little matter of the creation of Israel, the dislocation of millions of Palestinians, the 1967 war and a vicious on and off conflict notwithstanding.
Soon he may ask how come the Second World War happened. After all, Hitler built great highways, put folks back to work. Ok, there was that pesky Jewish Holocaust issue but can't we all get along?
He sounds like a hippie from '60s Haight-Ashbury trying to condense world history into yet another soundbite.
His own foreign policy is laughable. Now that he had appointed Jared his Jewish son in law to mediate in Palestine and he is apparently ready to announce the US Embassy will move to Jerusalem - what could go wrong with getting a deal from the humiliated once again Palestinians?
Imagine If Hillary were president and she had appointed Chelsea’s husband as her de facto Secretary of State?
We’d rightly be outraged. The sad part is that Trump understands history so poorly that the son in law might indeed be a better bet.
God Save America with this guy in the White House.