NASHVILLE, Tenn. — President Trump is paying homage to a predecessor, Andrew Jackson, with the highest form of flattery. Trump says the nation’s seventh president reminds him an awful lot of himself.
The president paid a visit Wednesday to The Hermitage – Jackson’s Nashville home – to commemorate what would have been Jackson’s 250th birthday.
Trump hailed Jackson as “one of our great presidents” and described some of their similarities. Trump’s team has long seized on parallels between the current president and the Tennessee war hero, comparing Jackson’s triumph in 1828 over President John Quincy Adams to Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton last year.
Trump described Jackson as a fellow outsider who pledged to represent the forgotten worker and took on the Washington establishment.
“It was during the revolution that Jackson first confronted and defied an arrogant elite,” Trump said.
“Does that sound familiar to you?” he asked his crowd. “Oh, I know the feeling, Andrew.”
Trump said Jackson’s victory “shook the establishment like an earthquake” and talked about how he’d tried to sweep out government corruption, improve veterans’ care and impose tariffs on foreign countries to protect American workers – all things Trump pledged to do during his campaign.
Trump spoke after taking a tour of the property, which included a stop at the home’s library.
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