Populist, abrasive and defensive were among the names the general public called Andrew Jackson. Now, two centuries later, those words might sound familiar. Our current President, Donald Trump, has also been given those nicknames. Although, they did have some major differences because Trump unlike Jackson never served in the military and was never involved in the White House until once elected. However, they mirror each other in a way that makes it hard to believe they're not twins. President Donald Trump could be the reincarnation of the late President Andrew Jackson. They were both heavily criticized by the elites for being outsiders, they are/were extremely wealthy, and they both got rid of the previous cabinets and instead added controversial advisers who they were loyal too.
Andrew Jackson was an American soldier and our seventh President of the United States. Before he became the president, he was a general in the US Army and served in both sides of Congress. Andrew Jackson was a strong-willed man that nobody messed with. Donald Trump is the 45th President of the United States and he never served in the military or in Congress. It may seem like Andrew and Donald had nothing in common, but that is not the case. This takes me to my first point, that they were both criticized by the elites.
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President Andrew Jackson redefined what it meant to lead a country. Jackson introduced a new system while he was serving at the White House; the ‘spoils system’ was its name. The spoils system is a system where he appointed his civil servants to work in government jobs solely because they were loyal to him and his political party. The elites didn’t agree with that because they wanted to be in the White House (Cheathem). When Old Hickory did this, they were major inconveniences to him and they didn’t enjoy not being able to make decisions. Andrew also signed the Indian Removal Act which was another reason why they wanted him out of office (Sustain Atlanta). The Indian Removal Act was an act that resulted in the removal of tens and thousands of Native Americans.
Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton which made a lot of people upset but most importantly made the elites upset because they wanted her to win (Gingrich). The President of the United States also repealed and replaced Obamacare. He didn’t like the health insurance because he assumed other Republicans didn’t like it either. They actually did like the benefits of Obamacare, but didn’t enjoy it as much as they could have because Obama created the healthcare.
An additional reason why Andrew Jackson and Donald Trump are similar is because they are both affluent. Jackson possessed his fortune by owning several slaves on his plantation in Nashville called ‘The Hermitage’. Jackson owned close to 300 slaves in his lifetime. The Hermitage was a profit-making enterprise and Andrew allowed people to whip the slaves. The slaves were whipped to increase productivity and if he thought they needed a severe punishment. He would have advertisements all over town which were to capture fugitive slaves that had fled off the plantation. He offered “ten dollars extra, for every hundred lashes any person will give him, to the amount of three hundred” (Wikipedia). Jackson also made profit off speculating on Indian lands. As an army general he removed land from Indians.
In conclusion, Donald Trump and Andrew Jackson are what could be considered the rebirth of one another. There are bounteous reasons how Donald Trump and Andrew Jackson are duplicates, they both were heavily criticized by the elites, they are without a doubt extremely wealthy and they both expressed loyalty to controversial advisers. In the years to come there will be more opinions, comparisons and disagreements about those two. However, the public cannot say that Andrew Jackson and Donald Trump didn’t build an entirely new political movement.
Works Cited
- “Andrew Jackson, America's Original Anti-Establishment Candidate”. Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 31 Mar. 2016, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/andrew-jackson-americas-original-anti-establishment-candidate-180958621/.
- “Andrew Jackson”. Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Sept. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson
- Cheathem, Mark R., and the Washington Post. “Mark R. Cheathem, Washington Post: President Andrew Jackson Made Decisions Based on Loyalty”. WacoTrib.com, 21 Sept. 2018, https://www.wacotrib.com/opinion/columns/guest_columns/mark-r-cheathem-washington-post-president-andrew-jackson-made-decisions/article_871c9f98-304c-5723-9cb6-1a18bd67790e.html.
- Gingrich, Newt. “Newt Gingrich: Like Andrew Jackson, Donald Trump Is an Intensely American President”. Fox News, FOX News Network, 22 Mar. 2017, https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/newt-gingrich-like-andrew-jackson-donald-trump-is-an-intensely-american-president.
- Inskeep, Steve. “Donald Trump and the Legacy of Andrew Jackson”. The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 30 Nov. 2016, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/trump-and-andrew-jackson/508973/.
- “Remembering the Time Andrew Jackson Decided to Ignore the Supreme Court In the Name of Georgia's Right to Cherokee Land”. SustainAtlanta, 27 Sept. 2018, https://sustainatlanta.com/2015/04/02/remembering-the-time-andrew-jackson-decided-to-ignore-the-supreme-court-in-the-name-of-georgias-right-to-cherokee-land/.
- The American Historian, https://tah.oah.org/february-2017/donald-trump-is-not-a-twenty-first-century-andrew-jackson/.
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