President Donald Trump is in town today to hold a rally at Municipal Auditorium and to visit Andrew Jackson’s home, The Hermitage, and lay a wreath on the former president’s grave in commemoration of his birthday.
Apparently, Trump was turned on to Jackson by his adviser, Steve Bannon. I can only assume Bannon admires Jackson’s genocidal impulses, but presumably Trump sees a kindred spirit in Jackson because of Jackson’s decisiveness and his willingness to ignore Washington insiders and do what he wanted.
that lays out the similarities between Trump and Jackson or, at least, the things about Jackson that Trump might find inspiring.
For instance:
Trump favors bold executive power. "Old Hickory," as Jackson was called, was a firm proponent of presidential prerogative and power. Jackson was a populist, portraying himself as the champion of the people against powerful and entrenched special interests and economic and political elites. He championed the rights of farmers, artisans, and ordinary workers. He believed the office of the President, not Congress or the courts, should be the center of national power. When he took bold executive action, he always explained it was for the common good and against powerful negative forces.
I find Dearstyne’s article persuasive. But I also can’t shake the feeling that Jackson and Trump would loathe each other if they somehow were to meet at The Hermitage.
I mean, how is an admitted germophobe going to have a productive conversation with a guy who constantly coughed up blood, suffered from terrible diarrhea, often bled himself and rubbed lead in his eyes? No offense to President Jackson. If anyone’s earned the right to suffer from terrible diarrhea without people making fun of him over it, it’s him, but where in The Hermitage, if Jackson were living there, would Trump feel comfortable sitting?
And what would Jackson make of Trump? Picture Jackson, sitting there with a bullet lodged in his chest, a festering wound in his shoulder from another bullet, this man who rode back to Nashville on horseback 40 miles after receiving that bullet in the chest, and who fought a war against the Creek Indians with his arm in a sling from that second bullet. This is how badass Jackson was:
All this time the wound in his left upper arm was draining pus. While Jackson was on the way to New Orleans, in the fall of 1814, a large fragment of bone sloughed off. Jackson, with a gruesome sense of humor, sent it to Rachel as a token of his love.
That’s on his way to New Orleans to fight the British. And that dude is supposed to sit across from Trump and hear all about how Trump couldn’t go to Vietnam because he had school and then bone spurs? I cringe for Trump just imagining how that would go.
If that’s not the deal-breaker for any potential friendship, let’s just imagine what Jackson would make of
Trump’s attitudes toward women. Jackson’s most endearing personal quality is that he liked women — well, let’s be specific — white women. When Polly Smith fell in love with Samuel Donelson, it was Andrew who went out to Rock Castle with a ladder and helped her run off to get married because he figured it was less likely that her dad would kill him than Donelson. During his administration, he decided the wives of his cabinet members were being cruel to Peggy Eaton, the wife of Tennessee Sen. John Eaton, so he got rid of his cabinet.
And then, how do you even begin to describe Jackson’s adoration for his wife, Rachel?
I wrote about their love affair for Valentine’s Day a couple of years ago:
Knowing what Rachel's first marriage was like, it's easy to see why she married a man like Old Hickory. When you know what it's like to be at the mercy of cruel men, having a cruel man who loves you on your side can be a great relief. And he adored her. He wrote her things like, "I will soon put an end to the Creek war, as soon as this is done and I can honourably, retire, I shall, return to your arms on the wings of love & affection." Which, if you can overlook the genocide, is very sweet.
As much as having a soft woman to love was good for Andrew, it didn't change him. John Sevier made a crack — "I know of no great service you rendered the country, except taking a trip to Natchez with another man's wife" — and the crowd had to keep Jackson from tearing him limb from limb right then. Jackson attempted to duel Sevier over the remarks, but according to some accounts, Sevier hid behind a tree.
Dude shot men for calling his wife a bigamist. When he returned to the Hermitage after his presidency, he visited her grave every day. He loved her. He killed for her.
And he liked smart, ambitious women who didn’t fit the conventional mold of ladylike.
I can’t imagine that man laughing along to President “Grab ’Em by the Pussy” talking about forcing himself on women, because all I can imagine is Jackson sitting there thinking “What if he were talking about my wife this way?”
Trump might admire Jackson as a president, but I just can’t see Trump or Jackson taking a personal liking to each other. And Jackson might seem like a good model for understanding the Trump presidency, except that though they both might have atrocious records when dealing with minorities, they’re made of very different stuff. Trump is a tough talker, but Jackson genuinely was tough.
