Why did President Donald Trump hang a portrait of America's seventh president Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office? History professors and co-authors of "The Problem of Democracy: The Presidents Adams Confront the Cult of Personality," Andrew Burstein a...
Why did President Donald Trump hang a portrait of America's seventh president Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office? History professors and co-authors of "The Problem of Democracy: The Presidents Adams Confront the Cult of Personality," Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg commented on Trump's apparent obsession with Andrew Jackson during a discussion on "Salon Talks" about their new book.
"Jackson was Trumpian in a sense that he embodied the will of the people, that he automatically expressed the will of the people, that he didn't have to read or study," Burstein explained to SalonTV's Dean Obeidallah. "He just knew instinctively what was best for the people."
Isenberg pointed out some qualities of Jackson that align conceptually with Trump. "He didn't even recognize the normal pattern of the three branches of the government. He assumed that the courts and the Executive were co-equal branches, which really meant he was in charge."
But, Isenberg added, as has been suggested, that perhaps it wasn't Trump who put Jackson's portrait in the Oval Office. "I still think Steve Bannon told him to put the picture there, and he [Trump] probably doesn't really know anything about Jackson."
Watch the video above to learn more about Andrew Jackson's "blustering" personality. And watch the full episode to hear Burstein and Isenberg's take on what the Founding Fathers would have thought of Donald Trump.
SalonTV host Dean Obeidallah is also the host of the daily national SiriusXM radio program, "The Dean Obeidallah Show" on the network's progressive political channel. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.