It is interesting that Trump should make this trip to the Hermitage so soon after I likened him to Andrew Jackson. Some of Jackson's agenda applies to Trump.
Upon taking office, Jackson set about clearing the bureaucracies with his Rotation in Office to prevent the hereditary succession of offices that had been common. He opposed the corrupt aristocracy and favored the common man. However, this began the Spoils System in which each new administration swept the offices clean and put in cronies. Civil Service Reform was instituted to stop the Spoils System. However, Civil Service Reform has given us a fourth branch of government that is largely immune to elections and often resists the will of the elected representatives. Enter Trump and his stated intention to roll back the scope and reach of the bureaucracy. There are no solutions, only trade-offs.
Jackson dealt with the Nullification Crisis in which South Carolina declared federal tariff to be unconstitutional. Threats of secession and even armed conflict arose. The issue was resolved by a modification to the tariff but Jackson said it was only a pretext. He predicted that another secession crisis would arise and the cause would be slavery, not tariffs. With Trump, the issue is immigration law, where courts, states, and cities are openly defying federal laws. California is even threatening secession.
Jackson was notorious for his temper and his willingness to duel those who offered slights. One did not insult Jackson and not expect reprisals. Trump may not break out the dueling pistols but he has that same habit to retaliate, often with belittling comments but now more often with Tweets. Jackson's opponents called him Jackass, which the Democrats embraced and is the source of the party logo.
Jackson was the first president since Washington who did not have a college degree. He was the first western president; all previous presidents had been from Massachusetts or Virginia. Trump is the first president since Reagan to not graduate from Harvard or Yale. He is also the first Northeasterner since JFK, and the first New Yorker since FDR.
Viewed as a violent backwoods bumpkin by the elites of the day, Jackson was nevertheless effective at pushing his policies. Among his more egregious achievements is the Indian Removal Act which led to the Trail of Tears. His economic policies had mixed results: to the good, he paid off the federal debt for the first and only time in the nation's history; to the bad, his banking innovations led to the Panic of 1837 (recessions and depressions were called panics). He is the only president to be censured. Jackson has been disowned by the Democratic Party because he owned slaves. As the Democrats were the party of slavery and segregation, most Democratic presidents are villains in the age of the social justice warrior.
Jackson is a good choice for Trump to study and emulate. His political situation is surprisingly similar to that of Jackson in 1829, an outsider seeking to upend and reform a corrupt and self-serving system. Jackson had considerable success.
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