Donald Trump next to Andrew Jackson. Photo: teleSUR.
By Omar Hassaan Fariñas – Mar 28, 2025
In 1998, in the midst of the impeachment trial of US President William Clinton, the undersigned was pursuing his first master’s degree in political science at Western University in Canada. In a Canadian government class, the professor asked us: Who is your favorite US president? (Of course, he said “American”). Beyond the slight inappropriateness of evaluating the “favorite” president of the neighboring country in a Canadian politics class, the participants—mostly Anglo-Saxon—expected this humble student (21 years old at the time) to provide a “controversial” and “questionable” answer, given that he is one of those crazy Arab terrorists and Mexican drug traffickers (all Latin Americans are Mexican in that illustrious part of the world). Most of them heaped almost romantic praise on John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton. The undersigned indicated that his “favorite” American president (using that very word) is the one on the $5 bill: Andrew Jackson (1829–1837). I indicated that Jackson is the one I have the most respect for, as he was the most sincere: he was a man of deep, visceral hatred, of intense racist contempt toward all Native Americans and Africans, and lacking any remorse or mercy. Jackson exterminated many Native Americans to steal their lands, and he did so without claiming any kind of “moral superiority,” clearly dehumanizing his victims. Jackson made clear his pride in being the architect of that genocide, and he never assumed a moral mask: the face of hatred, contempt, and death was always evident to all.
The undersigned was not very popular in his classes in Canada. I received my university degree and fled that country in 2001, and to this day, I have not returned. However, 27 years later, I still believe what I stated in that 1998 class is still valid, and now I must add Mr. Donald Trump to that “category” of presidents.
What did Mr. Jackson, the man on the $5 bill, do? In 1791, the US federal government recognized the Cherokee as a “sovereign nation” within the United States, accepting their territories as their own in the state of Georgia—a treaty was even signed to this effect. The residents of that US state resented the Native Americans for their productive lands and self-governance, so they invaded these lands and gradually exterminated their people. In 1828, a law was passed declaring all Native American laws null and void. What was the motivation for this blatantly illegal theft, which violated their own laws? These lands were excellent for African slaves of the Anglo-Saxons to plant cotton for their white masters. When they discovered that these lands also contained gold, the extermination of these tribes was guaranteed.
The United States federal government, under President Andrew Jackson, pushed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 through the Senate. The act granted the president the power to “negotiate” (i.e., force, through the use of bayonets), with the so-called “Five Civilized Nations,” the terms of their “relocation” from their territories in Georgia and other eastern North American territories, west of the Mississippi River, to what is now Oklahoma, a dumping ground that possesses neither fertile land nor natural resources of any kind (even in the year 2025).
The process of forcibly removing Native Americans from their lands generated one of the most lamentable tragedies of Anglo-Saxon expansionism: the “Trail of Tears.” More than 4,000 federal soldiers and 3,000 militiamen were tasked with imposing a death march that killed a large portion of the displaced population. Regrettably, this sad march of American genocide was never officially considered a “war crime,” much less a genocide, since these are committed only by the enemies of the US, never by the US and its allies.
More than 16,000 Cherokees were relocated to the Oklahoma dumps, forcing the women and children to march more than 1,300 kilometers, where they suffered disease, exposure, and hunger. They were also given blankets intentionally infected with smallpox by the Anglo-Saxons, and between 4,000 and 8,000 died. Jackson, as we can imagine, justified all this with the usual arguments: they are not human beings, they are a mere hindrance to “civilization,” they will soon face their own extinction, they are not civilized, etc. It is worth noting that, as of the 1890 federal census, the total population of all Native Americans in the United States was 230,000. At the beginning of Anglo-Saxon colonization in the 17th century, the number is estimated to be between 14 and 15 million. It is precisely because of this degree of “sincerity” with their visceral hatred that I continue to insist that Mr. Jackson is, without a doubt, my favorite American president.
In the second part of this article, we will continue analyzing the realities of the 19th century in the context of Our America today.
(teleSUR)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/KW/SL
