One of my favorite (?) stories from the 100 Days of Bigly was “Donald Trump & Sean Spicer seem to think Frederick Douglass is still alive.” It’s true. Emperor Baby Fists gave a speech for Black History Month in which he used present-tense verbs to describe how Frederick Douglass is still around – they’re golf buddies! – and he’s being recognized more and more for all of the great work he does. Our emperor, it seems, has difficulties understanding time, chronology, history and so much more. Which makes it extra fun when he’s asked anything about any historical figure.
So, Emperor Bigly has a thing about Andrew Jackson. Jackson was our seventh president and he was a piece of sh-t. He oversaw a massive genocide of Native American people, he was big on “white Southern pride,” he bought and sold human beings as slaves, and generally seemed like a violent, image-obsessed and honor-obsessed sociopath and narcissist. Emperor Bigly perhaps sees himself in the history of Andrew Jackson, although I honestly don’t believe for a second that Bigly even knows that much about Jackson. Trump is barely literate – it’s not like he would even skim a biography of Jackson. Jackson died in 1845, more than fifteen years before the start of the Civil War. This is what Emperor Bigly said about Jackson in a new interview:
President Trump during an interview that airs Monday questioned why the country had a Civil War and suggested former President Andrew Jackson could have prevented it had he served later.
“I mean had Andrew Jackson been a little bit later you wouldn’t have had the Civil War. He was a very tough person, but he had a big heart,” Trump said during an interview with the Washington Examiner’s Salena Zito. “He was really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War, he said ‘There’s no reason for this.'”
The president further questioned why the country could not have solved the Civil War.
“People don’t realize, you know, the Civil War, if you think about it, why?” Trump said during the edition of “Main Street Meets the Beltway” scheduled to air on SiriusXM. “People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?”
During the interview, the president also compared his win to that of Jackson.
“My campaign and win was most like Andrew Jackson, with his campaign. And I said, when was Andrew Jackson? It was 1828. That’s a long time ago,” Trump said. “That’s Andrew Jackson. And he had a very, very mean and nasty campaign. Because they said this was the meanest and the nastiest. And unfortunately, it continues.”
Political journalists are going crazy about this, Twitter is going crazy and everyone is like “Jackson died in 1845, for the love of God.” I’ll say this: before today, if you had asked me, I wouldn’t have known when Jackson died. I probably would have assumed that he was still alive for the start of the Civil War too. Now, that being said, I’m not out here frontin’ like Jackson is my favorite president. If you’re going to BE the president and talk about your favorite president, maybe you should at least know the time frame of his life, right?
Personally, I find it more disturbing that Trump doesn’t understand ANYTHING about the intricacies of how and why the Civil War began and how we got to that point. It wasn’t a petty Twitter beef that escalated over the course of a week. Someone send Bigly the Wiki link for Bleeding Kansas.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Or government. Or history. Or literature. Or the constitution. Or education. Or…
Or read,or be a polite guy, or have any kind of common sense. Only knows how to tweet to scare the world sh*tless, and flush millions of taxpayers dollars away by golfing all the time
It is just so terrifying.
Or respect for women, or environmental protection, or or or. I think we could spend all day listing them, and still not run out. It’s exhausting and frightening, and I don’t even live in the US.
That’s ok. Good ole Betsy DeVos will take care of erasing everything so everyone can be as dumb as 45!
That man should just shut up and glad hand his sycophants.
He reminds me of the Art Garfunkel version of “What A Wonderful World”:
Don’t know much about the Middle Ages,
Look at the pictures and I turn the pages,
Don’t know nothin’ ’bout no Rise and Fall,
Don’t know nothin’ ’bout ‘nothin’ at all…
The “new” version of the health care bill apparently has a lot of support from congressional GOP. PLEASE CALL your reps to make sure they know that you don’t support it! I am concerned it will get through because of distraction.
donald trump doesn’t know much about anything. There, much more accurate headline.
ETA This m*****f*****g, c***s*****g moron needs to go. I cannot wait till he croaks. This 72 yo retired librarian never used to talk like this.
+1
We were talking about pride in ignorance the other day, weren’t we? And here he goes again.
+ 100000.
@SusanneToo, I also am having the problem of my language deteriorating. I just can’t seem to talk about DT without cursing. Even then I’m frustrated because I can’t get enough of my hatred of him out to relieve stress.
+100 me too. I’ve always been a swearer, but all the frustration and anger I have about the Trump mess has made me curse a lot more. Sooo difficult to relieve all this f*cking stress!
Me too.
“People don’t realize, you know, the Civil War, if you think about it, why?”
WE ALL KNOW WHY YOU STUPID, ILLITERATE PIECE OF HUMAN REFUSE. THE CIVIL WAR WAS FOUGHT OVER WHITE SOUTHERNERS’ RIGHT TO OWN HUMANS.
God damn it. And democrats are out of touch?! He doesn’t even know why his hee-hawin’ base proudly flies their confederate flags over their Trump yard signs.
Well, that is a really simplified version of history. The Civil War was fought for a number of reasons, including oppression of states rights and protection of the South’s cotton economy (most Northerners could not have cared less about slavery or slaves rights and due to the Industrial Revolution taking place, had less of a need for slaves…still doesn’t mean they cared about black people’s rights, in general). Regardless, it was the deadliest war in cost of American lives and while slavery in its most basic form has ended here in the good ole US of A, oppression of African Americans has not. Maybe Big D should focus on the big issues taking place in present time at home.
Read about the Missouri Compromise and the Southern states fear of a srong federal government power and strong distrust of Abraham Lincoln.
Also when the North ended slavery it led to industrialization and urbanism. The South completely rejected modernization.
And let’s not forget John Brown and Harpers Ferry.
The cause of the Civil War, like any war, is more complicated than one specific answer. It wasn’t just slavery.
But the country was deeply divided in the decades leading up to the conflict. You could say in 2017 history is repeating itself.
@pf – “it wasn’t just slavery” – how about you read the official secession statements from the various southern states that explicitly say “THIS IS ABOUT SLAVERY”?
Des, of course slavery was a point of contention, but to say it was the only cause simplifies a rather complicated event in American history. Slavery was as just a specific example of a much larger issue – state sovereignty versus federal authority. The war was fought over state’s rights and the limits of federal power in a union of states. The perceived threat to state autonomy became an existential one through the specific dispute over slavery. The issue was not slavery per se, but who decided whether slavery was acceptable, local institutions or a distant central government power, i.e. Abraham Lincoln who the South absolutely detested.
Well… look up Jefferson Davis’ cornerstone speech:
“The Cornerstone Speech became so known for Stephens’s declaration that the perpetuation of slavery was the principal goal and purpose of the secession and the Confederacy:
“Our new government is founded upon exactly [this] idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.[1]”
Slavery WAS the economic system. So saying it was (also) about the economy is saying it was about slavery. Regardless of how all Northerners felt about it, there was a very strong abolitionist movement. And the slaves seemed to understand it was about their enslavement.
Most of all, if it hadn’t been about slavery, then why the establishment of the KKK, Jim Crow laws and the persistence of racism in America? Why is this still the dividing line?
Snaps for you 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Hear! Hear!
But it wasn’t just an economy/slavery issue. Slavery was just a specific example of a much larger issue – state’s rights vs. Federal power.
Copying and pasting my above comment –
Of course slavery was a point of contention, but to say it was the only cause simplifies a rather complicated event in American history. Slavery was just a specific example of a much larger issue – state sovereignty versus federal authority. The war was fought over state’s rights and the limits of federal power in a union of states. The perceived threat to state autonomy became an existential one through the specific dispute over slavery. The issue was not slavery per se, but who decided whether slavery was acceptable, local institutions or a distant central government power, i.e. Abraham Lincoln who the South absolutely detested.
“It was about states rights” but they never finish the sentence. It was about the states right to allow slavery.
I’ve never seen any convincing evidence that most Southern whites genuinely gave a flying flip about whether the supreme law of the land emanated from the state or the federal government — what they most certainly did care about was retaining the right to own black people and extract their labor and offspring at no cost beyond sufficient food and shelter to keep them alive. For the South, the Civil War absolutely was first and foremost about remaining a slave-owning society. The federal government and the Northern states may have chosen to keep the South from leaving for a variety of reasons among which human rights was not top of the the list, but it was the South that chose to kick the whole thing off. Eliding the fact that slavery was the central issue of the Civil War is like positioning the Holocaust as just an unfortunate side effect of Hitler’s plan to make Germany great again.
A couple of good articles on the causes of the Civil War:
https://qz.com/378533/for-the-last-time-the-american-civil-war-was-not-about-states-rights/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths-about-why-the-south-seceded/2011/01/03/ABHr6jD_story.html?utm_term=.f1c6874a1bdb
On the University of Georgia campus there are a number of interpretive signs about The War of Northern Agression. You see this throughout the Deep South.
He can’t read so why are we surprised
He want to a military high school so I guess I expected that he has studied US military history at least a bit.
A lyric from Randy Newman’s magnificent Good Old Boys album, “went in dumb came out dumb too” answers that.
It seems clear that his father paid for instructors to look the other way when Baby Fists failed to comprehend basic schoolwork.
@Merritt that would explain so much. It’s amazing his father didn’t go bankrupt buying his grades.
It’s like we have a real-life orange version of Billy Madison in the White House whose rich daddy paid schools and teachers from pre-school through college to pass his son.
Seriously, I can totally imagine Trump saying this:
“So, you see, the puppy was like industry. In that, they were both lost in the woods. And nobody, especially the little boy – “society” – knew where to find ’em. Except that the puppy was a dog. But the industry, my friends, that was a revolution!”
Pause
“Make America Great Again!”
That would be hilarious if it wasn’t true, and therefore terrifying.
Okay, it’s still funny.
To be fair, Trump doesn’t know much about anything. It’s scary. How is this man even still president? When is enough going to be enough for the GOP? Trump makes the GOP look very unqualified. How can they continue to think that this country is going to be ok with this man as President? After this statement from Trump, how can anyone still argue that Ivanka and Jared are having a positive influence on Trump?
Instead of tweeting, Trump needs to be sitting somewhere reading. Or maybe Ivanka and Jared can read the books to him.
Based on his “pre-existing conditions” interview, he is also making the same mistake that he made with the first version of his health care bill. He doesn’t know what’s in the bill because he didn’t take the time to read it. How can we expect the President of the US to read a health care bill that will impact millions of lives when he has to tweet about the fake news and throw rallies where he slams the WHCD?
Did you see how Trump ran away when he was pressed on saying that Obama wiretapped him? The reporter also said something about Trump’s fake news hypocrisy, in other words, how can he call the press fake news when he created fake news with the Obama wiretapping lie.
Read this. This is from his CBS interview. Absolute insanity.
https://twitter.com/JoeBerkowitz/status/859045886407606275
SO ridiculous. His deflections are as artful as those of a 5th grader! i just saw that this morning and it was the usual rambling incoherent raving of a lunatic. the interesting thing though is that he tried to avoid being pinned down on the topic, which reflects that he at least knows on some level (or has been told again and again) that he’s dead wrong about obama’s so-called tapping of him.
I just watched it and had no idea what had happened. Not surprised at anything Donald does but it was still shocking to see him act like a brat in the oval office. Then go pretend he was a big boy at the desk. With godawful Andrew Jacksons portrait hanging behind him. You can’t make this stuff up! Trump is an idiot in charge, he has zero common sense and no social skills at all. Its like he was raised to be a rich brat closed in a room with him and his servants.
Trump tries to make this idiotic comparison because he is trying to pull off his “man of the people scam.” It is true that Jackson[Kaiser has already named his claims to infamy] was the first president not from the landed gentry,as it were. Several of the first few presidents also went to elite schools, Harvard and the second oldest school, The College of William & Mary, my little girl’s alma mater. Washington did not go to college, but got his surveyor’s license from W&M.
Trump is trying and failing to make himself somehow the enemy of the “elites” How and why his supporters swallow this garbage is beyond me.
I still cannot quite believe this is real. This imbecile is POTUS!? How can this be?
Let’s also keep in mind that Trump tends to speak about figures in history as if he just ran into them at Studio 54, circa 1977.
/\ Winner of best comment EVER!
I find it interesting that he’s comparing himself to Andrew Jackson. I’m in grad school (History) and one of my professors made the EXACT same comparison during the election… although he didn’t mean it as a compliment.
Trumpo only knows one thing about Andrew, he was hated like him and won. He is seeing Andrew through his own narcissism but probably knows nothing about the actual man. The orange buffoon probably has no idea the horribleness of what Andrew actually did in office. He knows nothing about history and probably believes Andrew was up there with Lincoln in the wonderful things he accomplished.
In March, he visited AJ’s home (near Nashville) for what would have been his 250th birthday. One report I read mentioned one of his closest advisors (the one portrayed as the grim reaper) put that comparison in his head. I doubt orange ever gave it that much thought.
I doubt he can name the first five presidents in order. Or even the last five. He’s a profoundly stupid man.
Shocking!
So when war breaks out with N. Korean can we say: “People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?” (insert war with N. Korea for Civil War). How in the heck does someone not know how unintelligent they sound like? Obviously, no one is telling him what a fool he looks like. But, then, what would one expect of someone who thinks his success depends on “ratings”.
My guess is that one of his many stooges told him that he was some kind of friend of the “common man”, making the Jackson comparison, and Trump grabbed hold of it.
No surprises..he seems to save his kind (envious) words for the thugs of the world–Kim jung un(bearable), putin, and now dirty duterte, while dismissing our allies. I’ve said it a thousand times-he’s not playing with a full deck.
*sniff*, *sniff*. I am so sorry to but America’s ass is grass. Donal Trump is a complete moron, “Fox and friends are p*****sies” and the rest of GOP are a****kissers. I am not running my blood to water with this Idiot in Chief for the free world.
Maybe Trump’s hinting another leader would have “inspired” the South to give slaves their freedom without a war, maybe not. What we have here is another rabbit hole dug by Trump to get us talking.
Regardless of this trickery here’s a quote/answer from Chelsea Clinton’s site:
1 word answer: Slavery. Longer: When Andrew Jackson died in 1845 (16 yrs before the Civil War began), he owned 150 men, women and children.
“Why couldn’t we have worked out the Civil War?”
Well, there were many reasons, though ending Slavery seems to be reason enough for most people. However, in terms Trump would understand….
The entire economy of the South was built on slavery. There were a lot of 1%ers who’d lose their family business empires if they suddenly had to treat everyone like… people! Especially because that meant actually paying them for their back breaking work!
What will your response be when (hopefully) someday soon we stop letting you ship away jobs and those countries demand you and your cronies treat and pay their citizens fairly? You guys gonna just “work it out”? Or are you going to your damnedest to hold onto your empires no matter how it tears this country and others apart?
He is so stupid. Lack of intelligence is not a badge of honor. He couldn’t pass an elementary school class. It is pretty clear his father paid for him to get through Wharton.
He’s also saying that due it’s checks and balances, the constitution is “archaic” and “rough” on him. WTF????????
I was a history major and my favorite time period was the civil war. I can tell him, many many people have asked why and they have even written books on that very question. There is even a picture book that might be perfect for him.
My favorite book is still Battle Cry of Freedom, The Civil War Era, but at 900+ pages we know bigly can’t read it. No pictures or bullet points for him.
“People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War?” What!? People don’t ask that?? Every history teacher in this country asks that question. Granted, the “correct” answer may vary depending on geography, but THEY ALL ASK THE QUESTION. It’s American History 101.
That was my thought. That war has been analyzed ever since it ended. I guess that means reading & paying attention in history class….
When Tru*mp visited Nashville last month, he made a big show of placing a wreath at the Hermitage, which is Andrew Jackson’s home.
The most recent biographer of Jackson, historian Jon Meacham, also lives in Nashville, and he was interviewed on NPR that afternoon. Meacham told the interviewer that he had spent an hour with Tr*mp last year during the election, when the campaign asked him to advise Tr*mp on presidential history. Meacham said that at that time, Tr*mp did not have any favorite presidents and did not ask one question or say one word about Andrew Jackson. In fact, Meacham asserted that Andrew Jackson is actually the favorite president of…drum roll… Steve Bannon. Yes. Pushing Jackson as Tr*mp’s hero was Bannon’s idea. All a myth created for the racist base. It’s just another Tr*mp lie when he says he cares about Jackson at all. Here is an open letter written from Meacham to Tru*mp, begging him to change his ways:
“There is an anxiety, Mr. President, that you are too enamored of your own political base — that your tweets and your energy are directed toward motivating only those who already agree with you… We’re all Americans still, sir. Lead all of us.”
Here is a link to that open letter. If you like presidential history, it is an essential read:
http://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2017/03/14/jon-meacham-open-letter-donald-trump-lead-all-us-jackson-did-you-can-too/99157500/
Beautiful letter by Meacham on Jackson. He’s written some of my favorite books on WWII. However, Trump wouldn’t have read them.
Trump just got rid of the education and health program that Michelle Obama established for undeserved girls. The press needs to draw more attention to the EOs that Trump is signing which are destabilizing the US. It feels like Trump is getting the US in a weak condition where Russia can attack us. When will the GOP stand up and say enough is enough? They need to stop thinking about party and put the people first.