Trump says American Civil War could have been avoided through negotiations, faces backlash
The American Civil War’s impact on the United States is epic, to say the least.
It confirmed the United States as a single political entity, abolished slavery, and resulted in the deaths of approximately 620,000 soldiers. When former US president Donald Trump said that the American Civil War could have been avoided and the issues settled through negotiation, it was bound to create a backlash. And it did create a storm.
During a campaign in Newton in Iowa on Saturday, Trump called the Civil War “fascinating” and “horrible”.
“The Civil War was so fascinating, so horrible,” Trump said. “So many mistakes were made. See, there was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you. I think you could have negotiated that. All the people died, so many people died. You know, that was the disaster.”
He further went on to call the Civil War “vicious” and said that “no one would have known” Abraham Lincoln had “he negotiated it”.
His remarks come just days after former Carolina governor and fellow conservative Nikki Haley skipped the mention of ‘slavery’ as cause for the Civil War.
Previously, Trump had attacked Haley at a different rally in Iowa and had said, “I’d say slavery is sort of the obvious answer.”
TRUMP CRITICISED FOR AMERICAN CIVIL WAR REMARKS
Several historians and civil right activists came down heavily on the former US president, with some calling his comments “offensive”, while others calling him “historically ignorant”.
“The Civil War is the most important and divisive event that ever happened to this country. It is of epic and terrible importance, and his kinds of comments just diminish it into a kind of political plaything,” David Blight, a history professor at Yale University told The Washington Post. “It’s a diminishment of even the meaning of history itself. Why would we want to know any history if he can just say, ‘Oh, you could have negotiated it’?”
It should be noted that there were several attempts at unsuccessful negotiations before the war began in 1861.
Executive Director of Mississippi National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NACCP) Charles V Taylor Junior told USA TODAY that “there is no negotiation with slavery.”
“When Trump says things that are racially charged, and he says things that are polarizing, when he says things that are obviously offensiveâ€æ what he says is just so egregious, but he is absolutely talking to a specific group of people and alienating another,” he stated.
Not only historians and activists, former Republican representative of Wyoming, Liz Cheney, also called out Trump for his comments.
“Which part of the Civil War ‘could have been negotiated’? The slavery part? The secession part? Whether Lincoln should have preserved the Union? Question for members of the GOP — the party of Lincoln — who have endorsed Donald Trump: How can you possibly defend this?” Liz Cheney posted on X.
TRUMP’S CONTROVERSIAL COMMENTS
This is not the first time that Donald Trump has made such claims.
In an interview in 2017, Trump made similar claims on the American Civil War and said that former US president Andrew Jackson could have prevented it had he been alive.
Trump then went on to call Chinese President Xi Jinping “a brilliant man”. “He controls 1.4 billion people ruthlessly. Ruthlessly. No games, right? They said, ‘is President Xi of China a brilliant man?’ I said, ‘yes he is.’ He’s a brilliant man,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments come just days before the first caucus in Iowa, scheduled on January 15, in which he has a lead over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Haley. Trump and DeSantis have been sharpening their attacks on Nikki Haley ahead of the crucial Iowa caucus.