Donald Trump's Andrew Jackson-Civil War Answer Is All Steve Bannon
President Trump’s revisionist, Andrew Jackson-related history can be traced to none other than Steve Bannon.
ASAWIN SUEBSAENG0 5.01.17 11:07 AM ET
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If you’re wondering why Donald Trump enjoys chatting about Andrew Jackson so much, the answer to that question is Stephen Bannon, the chief strategist in the Trump White House.
As The Daily Beast reported in March, Bannon has, since the 2016 presidential campaign, actively pushed Trump to learn more about Jackson and to play up comparisons, however flawed, between Jackson’s populism and Trumpian nationalist-populist rhetoric and themes. In March, Trump even made a high-profile visit to Jackson’s Nashville tomb, where Trump solemnly saluted the deceased president.
President Trump’s love affair with the ghost of President Jackson is a relatively newfound one. For instance, @realDonaldTrump’s only other pre-2017 tweet about Jackson was tweeted in July 2013, when he wrote: “Interesting… the last time a Democrat succeeded a two-term Democratic pres. was in 1836 when Martin Van Buren succeeded Andrew Jackson.”
Bannon, the former head of Breitbart and a longtime “history nerd,” would often discuss Jackson’s historical legacy and image with Trump on, and after, the campaign trail, and how the two political figures had a lot in common, according to officials in the Trump campaign, presidential transition, and administration speaking to The Daily Beast.
“During the race, Trump would say he had heard this pundit or this person making the comparison, and Steve would encourage him and tell him how it was true,” a Trump campaign adviser, who requested anonymity to speak freely, said in March. “It was a way to flatter Trump, too. Bannon and Trump talked about a lot, but this was the president they had casual conversations about the most.”
According to two sources with knowledge of the matter, Bannon had suggested and had given Trump a “reading list” of articles and biographies on Jackson, and literature on Jacksonian democracy and populism. Stephen Miller, another top Trump adviser, also recommended and offered related reading material to Trump, one senior Trump administration official said.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/05/01/donald-trump-s-andrew-jackson-civil-war-answer-is-all-steve-bannon
