Milbank: Why racists celebrate Trumps praise of Jackson
How to account for President Trump’s new thing for Old Hickory?
Trump flew to Nashville on Wednesday afternoon and visited the tomb of Andrew Jackson, the first of Trump’s predecessors he chose to so honor, in celebration of Jackson’s 250th birthday. He placed a wreath, pronounced himself a “big fan,” asserted that he had much in common with Jackson and sent a thank-you tweet to a man who died 160 years before Twitter.
This followed Trump’s decision in January to move a portrait of Jackson into the Oval Office, his position during the campaign against replacing Jackson on the $20 bill in favor of Harriet Tubman, and frequent attempts by top Trump strategist Steve Bannon to liken Trump to Jackson.
Most Americans probably don’t much care about the homage to the Hero of New Orleans and populist father of the Democratic Party. But one group sees the Jackson worship as an important sign from the president — the same people Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, has been speaking to lately when he talks about “somebody else’s babies.” By accident or by design, Trump is delighting the white nationalists.
The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, applauded as “fitting” Trump’s honoring of this “white supremacist extremist,” as it calls Jackson. The group created a poster for supporters to display featuring a portrait of Jackson underneath a reference to a quote from Bannon: “Like Andrew Jackson’s populism, we’re going to build an entirely new political movement.” Beneath the Jackson portrait the poster says, with adorning swastikas, “The new face of the Republican Party: DailyStormer.com.”
http://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/milbank-why-racists-celebrate-trumps-praise-of-jackson/
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