He likes the tough bullying type who aren't afraid to get a little blood on their hands. Does he have no awareness of Jackson's legacy and how he has been viewed in modern times? "People don't realize, you know, the Civil War, if you think about it, why," the president said. "People don't ask that question, but why was there the Civil War?" "Why could that one not have been worked out?" he continued. Trump made the comments after going on a lengthy riff about President Andrew Jackson, a past president Trump believes was similar to himself in his populist views and bombastic campaigning. "I mean, had Andrew Jackson been a little later, you wouldn't have had the Civil War," Trump said of the slave-owning president. "He was a very tough person, but he had a big heart. He was really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War. He said 'there's no reason for this.” Jackson, who was president from 1829 to 1837, died in 1845, 16 years before the outbreak of the Civil War.