In an interview with Saleno Zito for her SiruisXM radio show "Main Street Meets the Beltway" released on Monday, May 1st, Donald Trump made multiple comparisons of his own campaign to that of Andrew Jackson's. The comment which stuck in the craw in many political pundits was the claim that "had Andrew Jackson been a little later, you wouldn't have had the Civil War. He was a very tough person, but he had a big heart. He was really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War. He said, 'There's no reason for this.'" This of course is an out and out false and ridiculous claim, largely due to the fact that not only have tens of thousands of pages written questioning the causes of the Civil War, but Andrew Jackson died 16 years before the war began.
'They said'
Even though the factual elements of Trump's claims are incoherent, there is something to learn from them that instructs us to how Trump thinks beyond that he is an ignorant buffoon. Trump's comments on Andrew Jackson were not about the 7th president, but himself. This is illuminated by the following statement comparing his campaign to Jackson's: "They said my campaign and is most like, my campaign and win, was most like Andrew Jackson with his campaign . . . and he had a very, very mean and nasty campaign, because they said this was the meanest and nastiest since."
Let's pause on the first two words of that quote. "They said." Trump does not make the definitive statement that Andrew Jackson's campaign was mean and nasty, despite empirical historical evidence suggesting it was (if Jackson suggesting Adams was a pimp who arranged a prostitute for the Russia Czar isn't mean and nasty, please comment and inform me what is).
Trump uses the phrase "they said" again at the end of this statement. This time he is refusing to acknowledge that his campaign was mean and nasty in an empirical sense (if inviting women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault to a presidential debate isn't mean and nasty, please comment and inform me what is). He is only willing to concede that "they said" it was mean and nasty.
The Center: Donald Trump
The key to understanding even the most incoherent of statements by Donald Trump is to understand that when he speaks, he is only speaking about Donald Trump. Trump has no opinion on any subject other than how it may relate to Donald Trump. These comments about Jackson are a microcosm into how Trump thinks.
Andrew Jackson had nothing to do with the 2016 presidential campaign. There is little to suggest that Donald Trump knew anything about Andrew Jackson other than Steve Bannon giving him cliff notes on who he is. Trump compares himself to Andrew Jackson because "they said" he was like Andrew Jackson. To Trump, if he and Andrew Jackson are alike, Andrew Jackson must be well versed in the Art of the Deal. Trump suggests that if Jackson were around that he would have negotiated his way out of the Civil War. In Trump's mind this must be true because he believes that he could have negotiated some way out of the Civil War (whether Trump honestly believes this in his heart of hearts is between himself and his lonesome bathrobe though tangible evidence Trump is a deal maker in the White House is scant).
If you read Donald Trump's words in the context of facts and reality, you will be left with smoke billowing from your ears. Once you understand that Trump at any given moment is only speaking and thinking about himself, his words begin to compute.
