Trump Trolled Over Bizarre, Baffling Claim About Avoiding the Civil War

POTUS says he thinks Andrew Jackson would have been able to prevent the war — Jackson died 16 years before it started

Donald Trump
Win McNamee/Getty Images

Twitter went wild on Monday morning over President Trump’s comments in praise of slave owner Andrew Jackson, and his declaration that the seventh president of the United States would have prevented the Civil War. “Why was there the Civil War?” Trump even asked.

Jackson died 16 years before the Civil War started. His term as president ended 24 years before the war kicked off.

“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 in regard to the Civil War,” Trump told Salena Zito of the Washington Examiner.

Chelsea Clinton offered an answer to Trump’s question. She tweeted that “slavery” is the reason why there was a war.

It would have been tough for Jackson to be “very angry” about the Civil War considering he died over a decade before it began. Jackson, a populist who railed against the educated elites of his time, occupied the White House from 1829 to 1837 and died in 1845, while the Civil War began in 1861.

Jackson was born in the Carolinas and began his political career in Tennessee. Historians consider him a Southerner at heart who owned slaves and forced Native Americans from their homes in what became known as the Trail of Tears.

Trump has a portrait of Jackson in the Oval Office and recently paid homage to Jackson by celebrating his 250th birthday with a visit to his Tennessee home.

Twitter quickly mocked the president for his comments, which will air today on SiriusXM P.O.T.U.S.’s “Main Street Meets the Beltway” at 2 p.m. ET.

https://twitter.com/GeeGeeAkili/status/859033677833154560

https://twitter.com/EvanWiddis/status/859049746735955968

https://twitter.com/luluontheshoe/status/859049655325212672

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