Current Events Aren’t as Unprecedented as we May Think – Andrew Jackson and Donald Trump Have Similarities

I’ve been reading a book, one which I bought in June of 2020; The Life of Andrew Jackson, by Robert V. Remini, 2010. I never got around to finishing the book, like the dozens of books since junior high that I’ve bought and opened, but never finished. I’ve bought many non-fiction books, the vast majority of which I haven’t finished. When I was younger I liked to read fiction, but somewhere in my teens I decided that fantasy books are a waste of time. Anyways, most non-fiction books tend to bore me because they generally lack intriguing narratives. But the Life of Andrew Jackson has been intriguing to me ever since I recently picked it back up for the first time since June of 2020. I noticed the striking similarities in human behavior. Intrigue, power struggle, debates on enfranchisement, state vs federal rights, human relationships, and more, resemble the movements of modern life.

Andrew Jackson was a populist, had annoying habits, an elderly yet generally competent, and center-of-attention confidence, and plenty of scandals, but above all, had massive popular support wherever he went. This description of President Jackson reminded me instantly of President Trump, having myself closely followed politics since 2016. The reason I didn’t follow politics before was because politics always felt like a forgone conclusion, an affair determined by people so distant, advanced, and unreachable that they may as well be controlling the US from the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise. And then Trump came in like a sledgehammer, shattering the glass pyramid of established norms and social conventions.

Andrew Jackson was known as “the General” to his contemporaries, among other names such as “Old Hickory.” His military service seems an apt primary descriptor of his character. But his first and foremost pursuit in life was business, and only after he became economically successful was he free to pursue public service. Eventually the combined incomes from his farm at his home, The Hermitage, and his public salaries were enough to ensure comfort.

There are a myriad of other similarities between presidents Trump and Jackson’s times in office if we analyze the powerful people surrounding the office of the president. In Jackson’s time, Henry Clay, a prominent senator with his own followers, opposed Jackson for his brashness and the way he had handled previous military events. So did John C. Calhoun, the vice president during Jackson’s first term. After animus was made explicit, the two had a public falling out. Many media outlets, and gossips, pointed out the scandalous former sex life of the wife of a cabinet member, and the stress around this embarrassment to Jackson troubled him deeply and damaged his effectiveness. Still, he was loved by the people and won a second term. His body was very physically damaged by this point, having lived with gunshot wounds and other battle scars for decades. However, his resolve to fix America, and wrest power back into the hands of the American people, had not waned. And, urged by Martin Van Buren, he sought and won a second term. Jackson had wanted to step aside for Van Buren, who he felt would be a better leader, but Van Buren convinced Jackson to run due to his wide popularity.

Both Trump and Jackson also promote similar plans of reigning in Washington and returning power to the people. However, Jackson actively took steps to reduce government, reducing the personnel size of the federal government by 9%. Of course in this era, the federal government had about 10,000 employees, while now there are over 3 million. The ratio of federal employees to total population was far less in 1830 than it is now, yet Jackson and his supporters still felt the the federal government had become too large, and overstepped in its powers.

The featured image of this post is Trump on a phone call during his first term. Trump is of course posing in front of the painting of Andrew Jackson. The comparison was intentional, and like Jackson, Trump quickly was met with the realities of leading a shaky team into the deep end of the pool and trying to make an impact on a town that has deeply entrenched, varied, and powerful interests at play, all jostling in a number of different directions.

Trump at CPAC, Feb 2024

Trump is at this time running for a second term for the second time, and barring a health disaster will likely be re-elected. This time around he seems more reserved, less angry, more statesmanlike, and much better positioned to be re-elected than he did during 2020. The novelty and impact of character assassinations and fake misconduct accusations, and COVID fearfulness, have fallen flat and are now fading memories to the general populace, and have proven a non-factor in 2024. However, there are still more than 6 months left until the general election, and a very wide range of possibilities remain open in the realm of politics, which may again spill out into the populace in the form of violence if the information spread of social media is able to stew people up into a violent crescendo as in the summer of 2020. The riots had a very cold bucket of water thrown them on August 25, 2020, when Kyle Rittenhouse, a child, killed two rioters in the defense of his life, The conduct of the rioters heretofore this point had been downplayed, ignored, and encouraged by some. Some few Americans spoke publicly about their defensive capabilities, but rioters stayed in cities, away from the people who would be likely to interpret the actions of the rioters as offensive violence rising to meet the conditions requisite for deadly force. But when Rittenhouse killed two in self-defense, while filmed from multiple angles, the fever dream broke, and riots calmed down in tenor and lost momentum from that point until their cessation when Biden was inaugurated in January of 2021.

While the comparisons between Jackson and Trump do not overlap perfectly, there still is a strong similarity between both the people and the times surrounding the two. An interesting similarity was the importance of public media in shaping narratives and highlighting flaws for political reasons. The primary similarity for me was the vivacious debate between federal and state power. This debate is still raging today, however today the federal government has powers that dwarf those available in Jackson’s day.