Roy Exum
Donald Trump said on Monday that if Andrew Jackson could have hung around for another 16 years, “Old Hickory” could have talked everybody out of having the Civil War. Trump was being interviewed by the Washington Examiner’s Salena Zito and said he felt like the nation’s seventh President could have worked things out.
Of course, the media Lefties immediately went nuts, pointing out Jackson died 16 years before the Civil War began, but Trump stood his ground.
“I just believe Andrew Jackson could have worked things out.” Closer to home, it was easy to fathom Trump’s interest because it appears for all the world that the President’s first paycheck is coming to Chattanooga and its Civil War shrines.
You may recall Trump is not taking a salary, instead donating his paychecks to the Department of the Interior “for public purposes.” Trump will not specify how his pay is to be used but Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke indicated the money will be used to repair historical battlefields, and two restoration projects at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park are at the top of the list.
President Trump was in Nashville last week and, during Monday’s interview, he had the famed Tennessean on his mind:
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TRUMP: [Jackson] was a swashbuckler. But when his wife died, did you know he visited her grave every day? I visited her grave actually, because I was in Tennessee.
ZITO: Oh, that's right. You were in Tennessee.
TRUMP: And it was amazing. The people of Tennessee are amazing people. They love Andrew Jackson. They love Andrew Jackson in Tennessee.
ZITO: Yeah, he's a fascinating...
TRUMP: I mean, 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. And he was really angry that -- he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War. He said, “There's no reason for this.” People don't realize, you know, the Civil War — if you think about it, why? People don't ask that question, but why was there the Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?”
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A writer for the Washington Post called Trump’s knowledge of history “sad” and even the headline chided the POTUS as “woefully ignorant” but Trump seems to enjoy the last laugh every day.
The Park Service estimates the upkeep on national battlefields is somewhere between $100 million and $229 million and Trump’s first-quarter check – roughly $150,000 – would pay for an erosion problem on a Point Park trail and restoration of the Ochs Museum, according to a USA Today story. The Ochs Museum, also located at Point Park, was built in 1938 and both the trail and museum projects are budgeted at $78,000 each. (While Trump is giving back his salary, he can use his gift as a tax deduction.)
There were over 1 million visitors to the Chickamauga and Chickamauga battlefields last year.
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SHE PRAYED BEFORE STOMPING OUT WINDSHIELD
Barbara Emily Lowery, age 24, of Cullman., Ala., was arrested shortly before noon on Monday when she went ballistic on a Volvo in broad daylight. A video taken by a person nearby shows Emory crushing the windshield while standing on a car and kicking in the windshield of a car that allegedly belongs to a male acquaintance. After she next kicked in the sun roof, she was taken into custody by the police.
She told TV station ABC 33/40 that the day before she had gone home and prayed about the situation. “I already knew going into it (disorderly conduct) that I would have to face some consequences, and you know it kinda sucks, but like I said, I prayed about it and stuff. And I did it anyway.”
The TV station said the car’s owner did not have a relationship with the woman. When asked, Lowery said she didn’t want to give out “his personal business.”
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