The problem is less about that Trump makes mistakes, and all about how he deals with them

[Slade3200]

Note to the "peanut gallery": Trump's remarks about Andrew Jackson are not the point of this post or thread. They are merely an example.

Donald Trump remarked that Andrew Jackson "was really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War." That remark is merely among the most recent Trump has made and that show his penchant not only for revisionist history (alternative facts?) -- modern and long ago -- and/or his abject ignorance of yet another subject, American history.

No small number of people have noted salient facts about Andrew Jackson:

• He died some 15 years before the Civil War.
• He was POTUS some 30 years before the Civil War.
• He owned ~150 slaves, enough that (1) we can safely say he didn't take great exception with the "peculiar institution, and (2) he, in person, may not actually have known or met each of them.

Was Jackson cognizant of the divisive potential slavery held? Of course, he was. Everyone and every political leader dating to the Founders was. Jackson, like plenty of his contemporaries, surely remarked upon how slavery may well be "the undoing of the nation." So contentious was the issue that there'd have been and is nothing particularly prescient in his having done so.

Quite simply, one either was supportive/acquiescent of slavery or one was not, and the extent which one was either drove one's position on its political impact. Similarly, one had a 50/50 shot of being right, no matter one's thoughts about whether slavery would sunder the nation. So it is with all things binary.

Trump's dearth of knowledge about Jackson and his age's U.S. history, though bizarre for a man who has succeeded Jackson, is minor. Far more troubling is "The Donald's" ardently pathological refusal to keep mum about things he doesn't know well. Even worse, however, is the toddler-like obdurate truculence he manifests in avouching the verity of his thus uttered hogwash.

Why the hell Trump doesn't just "own" his mistakes and gaffes is anyone's guess, but regardless of the reason, there is no good one. That Trump simply won't "be a man about it" when he's wrong and noted as such is the problem. It's a big problem because it's a character flaw that has impact on everything he's wrong about.

When he's wrong about an academic fact of history such as his misstatements/misunderstanding about Andrew Jackson, the Jackson presidency, and the corresponding times, well, that's no big deal. Trump makes it a big deal by "doubling down" on his mistake, which were he to not do, the matter of his error would wane as rapidly as it waxed. But what is come when Trump is wrong about matters of current events -- their occurrence, their import, their causes, etc? The answer is quite clear. Trump's intransigence will "take over" and errant and ill fated policy will result. One, we, in the aftermath must then pray that bad policy be the limit of the outcome.

Everyone -- even geniuses, which Trump is not -- is wrong about things. There's nothing particularly troubling about one's being mistaken. It happens. On the other hand, there is something very wrong about being mistaken and not being at least bright enough to know it, most especially so when the nature and extent one's error has been soundly explained and one refuses to simply admit one's mistake so all can move on to other things. Doing that is most necessary when the error itself and it's topic relevance pertains to something that, like so many of Trump's mistakes of which the "Jackson" one is but a recent one, has no real impact on current or future significant decisions. When it Trump going to "grow up" and realize that nobody expects infallibility of him, merely integrity and reason?

The point is leftwing snowflake hysteria over nothing. You worthless douche bags mistake your opinions for facts.

So what are you trying to say the facts are? Trump never makes mistakes? Or Trump is really good at owning up to his mistakes?

 

[OldLady]

This OP is simply another instance of a determined effort to make a mountain out of (at most) a molehill. Trump was probably thinking of the war of 1812 where Gen. Jackson played a pivotal role. And why would anyone care about his ideas on slavery?

molehill and why would anyone care about his ideas on slavery: agree.

 

[OldLady]

One peanut here:

I had no problem understanding what Trump meant by that statement. He clearly said that if Jackson had been around later, he would have been able to prevent our Civil War, find a compromise. Jackson was a strong unionist. He pulled all the plugs when he was in a fight. Trump feels he would have won that fight. I had no problem understanding what he meant, and I don't see how you can say he was incorrect about that. It's a "what if" game like we all play now and then about one thing or another. imo, he has no reason to apologize.

What had me wondering is how that topic got brought up to begin with. I didn't see the whole interview. Must have been quite "wide ranging." LOL

One fine day Trump will walk out into the Rose Garden and say "Fine morning, what a beautiful blue sky," and a third of the country will be twittering and writing op eds about what an ignoramus he is for saying the sky is blue. It's actually.....