Just finished a biography of Andrew Jackson and was taken by parallels between the former 7th President’s policies and that of the 45th President. Looked at in this context, our current President is not nearly as anomalous or unprecedented as the modern media would lead you to believe. The administrations of these two Presidents are separated in time by 188 years, and while the specifics of the following events are different, the policy positions taken by each man are strikingly similar.
Outsiders – To begin, both men ran for the Presidency as “outsiders”, not part of the existing federal government establishment. Both were self-made men who gained their leadership skills from direct life experiences as opposed to a reliance on many years of formal education. Because of this, both men were ridiculed for not being thoughtful or academic enough in their decision-making. Each was accused of just reacting with his “gut”. In keeping with the perspective of the “outsider”, both Jackson and Trump believed there was hidden corruption and an unconstitutional “shadow” governance occurring within the federal establishment. This was being carried out by unelected longtime federal employees deeply embedded in the federal bureaucracy who may have started out with noble intentions but had become self-serving and partisan over time. Jackson acted immediately to replace as many of these people as possible through a program he termed “Rotation-in-Office”, believing no federal position of consequence should ever default to a lifetime appointment. In addition, Jackson believed holdovers from previous administrations who held opposing political philosophies heightened the probability of his own agenda being undetectably undermined. President Trump came into office with exactly the same concerns, albeit he used more colorful language to describe the condition. “Drain-the-Swamp” took the place of “Rotation-in-Office”. Also, the colloquial term “Deep State” aptly describes the embedded “shadow” government feared by President Jackson. It took Jackson several years (with a much smaller federal workforce) to replace enough people to his satisfaction. It will likely take President Trump even longer.
Nullification – During Jackson’s Presidency, a state’s rights issue arose regarding the ability (or inability) of a state to “nullify” a federal law believed to conflict with a state law. At the beginning of Jackson’s 2nd term, South Carolina declared a federal tariff law null and void inside the state and even threatened to secede from the union if the federal government tried to enforce the law within the state. Jackson considered this position nothing short of treason. While he did try for a short time to reason with state officials, he took a hard line and readied federal troops to enter South Carolina to enforce the law and restore order. Ultimately, South Carolina capitulated, and precedent was set. President Trump is facing an analogous situation with the state of California over the enforcement of federal immigration laws. California has taken the position that their own “sanctuary” state laws nullify the imposition of federal immigration laws within the state. And while the current governor of California has not yet publicly threatened secession, there are several active secession movements within California continuing to gain followers (we wrote about one of these, “CALEXIT”, in a previous post). Unlike President Jackson, President Trump is not readying federal troops to restore order in California. However, there is a powder keg developing between federal ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officials conducting raids to apprehend illegal immigrants, and local California mayors tipping-off the criminals before ICE arrives. This is not likely to end well.
The Bank – President Jackson loathed the existence of the 2nd national bank. “The Bank”, as it was called then, was an entirely private corporation that managed (among many other things) the inflows and outflows of the federal budget. An outgrowth of the banking system originally setup by Alexander Hamilton, this bank had grown huge. So huge that it possessed the power to directly affect the US economy by controlling interest rates, lending policies and the value of paper money. Jackson’s distaste for this institution arose from the fact that it was unaccountable to voters, the US Treasury, or the President, and could independently change the course of the federal government. Jackson’s position was that there should never be an entity, inside or outside government, with enough power to act on its own to subvert the Constitution in this way. Jackson devoted a lot of time and political capital to eliminate this threat and prevent it from ever resurrecting itself again. President Trump is facing a similar situation with the FBI. While the specific context is certainly different from that of The Bank, the philosophical position is very much the same. It is now clear the FBI leadership independently acted to influence the outcome of the 2016 election and exercise power not granted by the Constitution, the justice department or the President. Sound familiar? President Trump now finds himself in a similar circumstance to what President Jackson faced with The Bank. In both cases, there is a need for the fundamental service the entity provides – Jackson needed a federal banking service and Trump needs a federal law enforcement service. However, the management and structure of each needed to change to preserve that purity of purpose. The FBI has traditionally been one of the few government organizations that retains its leadership across a change of administrations, owing to its non-partisan role as a law enforcement entity. In this case however, both the Director and Deputy Director of the FBI have been removed, and may face criminal charges. Jackson would surely have taken the same action.
There are areas where Jackson and Trump differ – they are not completely of the same ilk. Jackson was a son of poverty and tragedy, and was orphaned as a teen, while Trump has a very close-knit family and was a hugely successful businessman. They are similar in that both are detested and maligned by established Washington power brokers as well as the government deep state. Neither man has any fear of giving offense when they believe themselves to be following the correct path.
What appears to bind them more importantly than any other factors are that they are both men of action, confident in taking take bold steps, and interpret the Constitution as originally intended by the founders. Jackson held national unity in the highest regard as does President Trump. There is much time left in Trump’s first term, but at least so far, his style of governance, and his goals are strikingly similar to Jackson’s. Far from being an aberration, as much of the media likes to portray our current President, history may actually be repeating itself.