If you’ve been paying close attention to the change of presidents in the United States – you’ll have noticed that incoming President, Donald Trump, has made repeated references to President William McKinley – who was the 25th president of the US before being assassinated in the year 1901. Why is Trump fascinated by McKinley? Let’s try and find out.
Before we dig into some history – I made this film below a couple of years ago about the killing of McKinley by an anarchist activist Leon Czolgosz – who was then sent to the electric chair. At the end of the 19th century and start of the 20th, there was a rash of murders and terror bomb plots by anarchist groups in America and Europe. Several heads of state were assassinated by anarchists including McKinley, Tsar Alexander II of Russia, King Umberto I of Italy, King George I of Greece, President Sadi Carnot of France, and Empress Elizabeth of Austria. Watch this video and then continue reading below.
MORE ON THIS: The anarchist assassination of President McKinley
So why does Trump so obviously revere McKinley? Well, look at some of McKinley’s policies and you might start to get the picture:
- He declared war on Spain in 1898 seizing Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guam, and the Philippines. Now, he could claim that the first two territories were in the Americas and so by citing the Monroe Doctrine (that made the western hemisphere America’s sole sphere of influence), Spain had no right to rule those places any longer. However, the Spanish had been there since Christopher Columbus, who landed four hundred years before. Nevertheless, the United States succeeded in defeating Spain across the board. This was the end of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.
- McKinley loved tariffs so much that he was called the “Napoleon of Protection”. On taking power as president, he introduced the Dingley Act, which raised tariffs by an eye watering 57% on a range of goods that included sugar, salt, iron, steel, petrol, matches, whisky, and leather items. Some American businesses were delighted by the protection this legislation gave them from foreign competition. But on the downside, the Dingley Act raised the cost of living by 25% between 1897 and 1907. It was eventually removed when a federal income tax was introduced, giving the government a more equitable source of revenue. If Trump is considering replacing income tax with tariffs by degrees – most economists think that would not work.
- Like Trump, McKinley was cast into the wilderness in the early 1890s, being voted out of the senate, and went off to become governor of Ohio, where he seethed until he was able to storm back to Washington DC as president in 1897.
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Trump is in such awe of McKinley that he intends to rename a mountain after the president. Since 2015, the highest mountain in north America, located in Alaska, has been called Mount Denali. However, between 1917 and that year, it was known as Mount McKinley. It will now revert to that name.
At this inauguration – Trump had this to say about McKinley:
‘We will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs. President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent. He was a natural businessman and gave Teddy Roosevelt the money for many of the great things he did, including the Panama Canal, which has foolishly been given to the country of Panama after the United States.‘
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