Trump: Andrew Jackson would have prevented the Civil War

Trump was in an interview with Sirius XM where he made some comments about the Civil War that are getting a lot of attention:

“I mean, had Andrew Jackson been a little bit later, you wouldn’t have had the Civil War. He was a very tough person, but he had a big heart. And he was really angry that he saw what was happening, with regard to the Civil War. He said, there’s no reason for this. People don’t realize, the Civil War — you think about it, why? People don’t ask that question. But why was there a Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?”

While much of Twitter has apparently mocked Trump for his comments, Jon Gabriel points out that Trump is partially right:

Mockery quickly took over Twitter, accusing Trump of not realizing that Andrew Jackson was dead before the Civil War broke out. Also, that he’s a big, fat, dumb-dumb stupidhead.

Yes, his quote is clunky, meandering, and confusing. That’s pretty much how Trump rolls. But he’s most likely referring to Jackson’s efforts to prevent a civil war during his administration.

Jackson presided over the nation’s first secession crisis. South Carolina declared the right to nullify federal tariff legislation because it hurt the state’s financial interests and threatened to secede in November 1832 following Jackson’s reelection. In December 1832, Jackson introduced a Force Bill to Congress that would allow him to send federal troops to South Carolina to enforce laws and prevent secession. The bill was delayed long enough for a compromise tariff bill that to make its way through Congress. On March 1, 1833, both bills were passed and secession—and civil war—were narrowly avoided. President Abraham Lincoln would later cite Jackson’s actions during the nullification crisis in his attempts to prevent secession and the Civil War.

I suspect Trump isn’t an expert on the Nullification Crisis. As with most of his statements, he’s pulling together random threads of half-remembered facts that someone told him while he was chomping down a taco salad. But Jackson did, in fact, avert a civil war.

Gabriel continues and succinctly debunks his other claims about Jackson and the Civil War:

Now that that’s taken care of, I’ll fact-check the rest of Trump’s statement.

• Jackson was a very tough person: True
• He had a big heart: False
• He was really angry: True
• Why was there the Civil War: Slavery

Liberals like Chelsea Clinton have leapt onto Trump’s last point as to why there was a Civil War:

I’m sure some of you more scholarly commenters will have a good take on this and I look forward to reading your responses…