Washington (AP) – In his first semester, Donald Trump’s That’s what other presidents I liked Andrew JacksonA homemade populist who met hatched, who enjoyed turning Washington over.
Now he is biased towards the barrel chest and is definitely polite William McKinleyTrump’s favorite second-year policy, American expansionism and tariff champion.
Trump’s change shows how his thinking and priorities evolved, not just swapping one intrusion with another.
The Republican president’s praise for McKinley fits with his current politics, which was different from when Trump first took office in 2017. Trump’s key political targets at the time were elites, predicting that his administration might collapse in the face of a working-class uprising like Jackson.
His second First addressTrump praised McKinley as a “natural businessman” and “enriched our country so much through tariffs and talent.”
Trump used day 1 Restore the names of the highest peaks in North America Mount McKinley and he has repeatedly nominated – recently, he checked out more of the 25th President. Heavy duty The world was maintained due to the kind of trade war that was not seen from the era of McKinley Customs Act of 1890.
Jackson makes little guarantee of mention.
“In the first semester, McKinley was a fat cat,” said HW Brando, a history professor at the University of Texas and author of Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times. “So if you become a populist, you wouldn’t be McKinley.”
However, Jackson, the brand pointed out, disliked tariffs. “So, if tariffs are yours, Andrew Jackson is no longer your man. You have to look around to find someone whose name is related to tariffs.”
The White House says the shift is not a departure from Trump’s first-term goals, but simply leaning heavily towards his new tool (in this case, tariffs).
“President Trump has never wavered from his commitment to outweigh working-class Americans special interests. The channeling of President McKinley’s tariff agenda shows that he uses every lever of executive power to deliver to Americans,” said spokesman Kush Desai.
Still, many of Trump’s current top advisors are financial sector veterans who are passionate about helping the president succumb to his will, rather than reshaping the president from the bottom up.
That meant that Trump would focus his political rage on foreign countries and focus on “globalists” who embraced international free trade. He wants to impose New economic order It first made us interested and calmed down Slow import tax As the most efficient way to get American trading partners to negotiate a more advantageous transaction.
Trump’s changing economic priorities
Not all of the president’s Jackson impulses are dormant. He imposed some first-term tariffs and is now shaking Washington Reduce federal workforce and We stock the bureaucracy system With a loyalist. He also prioritizes against the “elites” at Ivy League College and top law firms.
In his rhetoric, Trump mythologized the power of tariffs despite telling a different story. The tariffs of the McKinley era tracked it roughly Golden Agewhich provided more income for the federal government, but was also a highly stratified society with no possessions and no meaning.
But just as Jackson allowed first Trump (a massive Trump that had little in common with many working-class voters he begged) to take up the modern populist mantle, McKinley gives Trump an intellectual justification and historical precedent for his love for tariffs.
“It’s certainly a shift in atmosphere,” said Eric Rauchway, a history professor at the University of California, Davis and author of “Murdering McKinley: Theodore Roosevelt’s America.”
This is also an example of Trump taking policy action to move the country in a certain direction, or simply declaring that he wants to be true. And he works backwards to come up with arguments about why his instincts are so long as he is right.
“The relationship between Trump’s history and many other things is entirely a deal,” said Daniel Feller, professor emeritus at the University of Tennessee and a former longtime editor of “Andrew Jackson’s Paper.”
From “President of People” to “Napoleon of Protection”
Jackson was the founder of the Democrats, but now it’s on the left. I’ll reject him Because they are slave owners who imposed a “way of tears” on Native Americans. Orphan at the age of 14, Jackson taught himself the law and eventually became wealthy.
However, he created a political persona around defending everyday Americans. During his first term, Trump called Jackson “President of the People.”
McKinley was assassinated in 1901 six months after the second season and was born in Niles, Ohio, outside Youngstown. He fought the Union Army and preferred to be called “Major,” the honorary civil war title he won throughout his political career.
As a lawmaker, McKinley was known as the “Napoleon of Protection” to promote the Customs Act of 1890 to protect American producers when there was no federal income tax. It ultimately raised domestic prices, hurting US exporters, and caused a panic in 1893.
McKinley also represents a burst of American colonial expansion. He annexed Hawaii, controlled the Philippines and overseen the United States. His administration also acquired new territory in Guam and Puerto Rico, established military governments in Cuba, and sent troops to China.
Today, Trump spoke about the US invasion. Panama and Greenland,make Canada 51st Provincial and Turning Gaza Strip into a Middle Eastern Riviera.
Comments in July Which of his predecessors got space on the main White House wall?Trump said, “The Great Andrew Jackson.” However, he praised McKinley, saying that the United States was “the wealthiest” from 1870 to 1913, “all dim country.”
“We had a very strong president,” Trump told his cabinet. “McKinley, more than anyone else.”
On social media last week, Trump’s aides posted a photo of a new golden wrapped portrait on the West Wing featuring Trump alongside McKinley, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Henry Clay. Lincoln used high tariffs to fund the civil war, and Jefferson was a defender of free trade, but supported tariffs to strengthen the domestic industry. As Speaker of the House, Clay helped pass major customs laws in 1824.
Tariffs hurt Republicans on McKinley’s Day
What Trump doesn’t mention is that McKinley’s tariffs cost a majority of the GOP home in 1890. He returned to Ohio and was elected governor, and won the White House in 1896 despite bankrupting a bad investment in the tin plate company.
Later, Rauchway said McKinley did not actually promote tariffs following his experience with them in Congress. Just before he was killed, McKinley also spoke about the need for international trade.
It didn’t stop playing cards A fundamental tariff announcement After the US said around the world in April that it was “lost, plundered, raped, plundered, plundered.”
His defense of tariffs is nothing new. In his first term, Trump ordered some higher I will import taxes Solar panels, washing machines, steel and aluminum imports. He also occasionally praised McKinley, as he did in his 2019 speech when the president in 2019 said he was “very strong in protecting our assets and protecting our country.”
However, Trump admitted in the same speech that “I haven’t completely missed the script.”
That’s not the case anymore. Trump continues to promote McKinley’s position throughout history.
“McKinley was a great president,” Trump told the cabinet meeting last month. “Who has never gained credibility?”
