If Donald Trump had paid attention in history class or bothered to read a history book, he would know that Andrew Jackson owned slaves and died sixteen years before the Civil War began.
But Trump embarrassed himself and the country yet again by telling a right-wing rag that former President Andrew Jackson opposed the American Civil War that occurred from 1861 to 1865.
“I mean, had Andrew Jackson been a little later, you wouldn’t have had the Civil War,” Trump claimed. “He was a very tough person, but he had a big heart. He was very angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War, he said, ‘There’s no reason for this.’”
Trump then claimed that no one asks why the Civil War happened and why it could not have been worked out.
Jackson was a noted southerner who lived in Tennessee. He owned over 100 slaves and he probably would have went along with the South had he been alive in 1861. As we all should know, the South seceded from the Union because they were butthurt over the election of Abraham Lincoln. The Confederacy then proceeded to fire the first shots of the war in an effort to capture Fort Sumter.
However, we really can’t say for certain how Andrew Jackson would have felt about the Civil War since he died in 1845.
As for the “big heart” Trump attributes to Jackson, that’s bullshit as well since Jackson was a violent slave owner who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Native Americans by forcibly removing them from their homes and forcing them to march westward. That tragic event is known as the Trail of Tears.
Furthermore, the Civil War occurred because the South refused to give up slavery. Compromises to prevent civil war were made several times over the decades prior to the war, but it ultimately happened anyway because America could not be both a land of freedom and slavery. The Civil War was inevitable. Trump’s questions have been asked and answered by historians. They are not new.
Trump’s historically illiterate demonstrates once again how he has turned America into a laughingstock around the world.
And Americans were quick to humiliate Trump for it on social media.
Jackson died in 1845. The civil war began in 1861. https://t.co/KUGqaESWrl
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 1, 2017
@JohnKincade @jaketapper @StatsOnFire Andrew Jackson also was in favor of the genocide of Native Americans to “solve the Indian problem.” He was a despicable person.
— Ron Clements (@Ron_Clements) May 1, 2017
@jaketapper Next weekend: Historians March on Washington. Led by Ken Burns and Michael Beschloss.
— Indi Montgomery (@indimontgomery) May 1, 2017
@jaketapper @southworth Today the President wondered aloud why the nation couldn’t have made a deal with slavers.
— Josh (@JoshOnInternet) May 1, 2017
@jaketapper Trump really should have consulted with his close friend Frederick Douglass before answering this question.
— Southworth (@southworth) May 1, 2017
@jaketapper I see Betsy DeVos has recently given him a history lesson!
— Tyler Gorash (@TurbidTG1) May 1, 2017
@jaketapper @MeredithBlake I can’t wait to hear Jackson’s hot takes on WWII, Cuban Missile Crisis, and WMDs in Iraq
— Ian Anderson (@ianranderson) May 1, 2017
@jaketapper Does the Wharton School wish they could take back Trumps degree?
— Nai Mei Yao (@naimeiy) May 1, 2017
Featured Image: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
