TRUMP AND JACKSON
Donald Trump supporters try to compare him to Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the US (1829-37). Both Trump and Jackson felt they were victims of a “stolen election”, Jackson in 1824, Trump in 2020. Both were populists, appealing to the white working class, who railed against “the elites”. Both tended toward volatility, narcissism, authoritarianism. Both were wealthy at the time of election. Both used the media to their advantage, Jackson the newspapers and Trump social media. Both wanted to replace public employees they thought were disloyal. Both wanted control over the banking system. Both had problems with people of non-European descent: Trump opposed DEI and Latino migration, and Jackson was an enslaver and drove Native Americans from their homelands. Both believed in vigorous use of military power, Trump in the Americas and the Middle East, Jackson against Spain and Native Americans in Florida and against Mexico in Texas.
But there are important differences between Trump and Jackson. Foremost are the times in which they lived. In Jackson’s time racist views of people of African descent and Native Americans were common: Jackson was not an outlier in this respect, whereas Trump is. Jackson became rich by sharp investments in land, but he was born poor: Trump was born wealthy. Jackson was a military hero in a young country fighting for its place in the world: Trump is an aggressor throwing US military power around the world at will.
Sources: The Economist, 6/13/26 and “Donald Trump is not a 21 st Century Andrew Jackson” by Mark R. Cheathem, Organization of American Historians 2025