Donald Trump, just sworn in as the 47th president, was reelected to be a wrecking ball, a middle finger, the people’s punch to the Beltway’s mouth. And while this populist moment feels “unprecedented,” it’s not. The rebuke of the ruling class is encoded in our nation’s DNA. 

We have seen populist leaders like Donald Trump before. He stands on the shoulders of Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot, Alabama governor George Wallace, and Louisiana legend Huey Long. There have been populist senators, governors, newspaper editors, and radio broadcasters.

But only rarely has a populist climbed as high as President Trump. In fact, it has happened only once before. 

The last populist to win the presidency was born before the American Revolution. He rose from nothing to become a great general. His adoring troops called him Old Hickory, and his enemies derided him as a bigamist and a tyrant in waiting. His name was Andrew Jackson, and he’s the guy who’s still on the 20 dollar bill. 

On today’s debut episode of Breaking History, Eli Lake explains how Andrew Jackson’s presidency is the best guide to what Trump’s second term could look like. 

Credits: Andrew Jackson: Good, Evil and the Presidency; PBS

The Re-Education host Eli Lake has a new show called Breaking History, brought to you by The Free Press.

Breaking History breaks down the news, by breaking down history. Host Eli Lake covers everything from LBJ and the Roman Republic to Donald Trump and the chaos at Columbia. This twice a month show from The Free Press delivers the best historians, authors, and reporters by mining the archives of human experience to figure out the present. George Santayana wrote, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Follow the new show Breaking History to resist the repetition.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/breaking-history/id1790502779 

In this episode Eli examines the life of Menachem Begin when he was a wanted man in the years before the state of Israel was created. His guest is Daniel Gordis, author of Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel's Soul. 

Time Stamps:

00:20 Monologue

1:08:00 Interview with Daniel Gordis

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In this episode, Eli traces the history of Jews who use their words to side with the enemies of the Jewish people. His guest is the chief Rabbi of the Re-Education and the host of the Good Faith Effort podcast, Ari Lamm.

Time Stamps:

00:20 Monologue

29:29 Interview with Ari Lamm

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In this episode, Eli looks at why so many elite institutions are afraid of firing those that engage in insubordination or are incompetent. His guest is Michael Moynihan, co-host of the Fifth Column and America's premier plagiarism cop. 

In this interview only episode, Eli talks to Jonah Goldberg, host of the Remnant Podcast and a founding editor of the Dispatch. They discuss the inevitability of a GOP Trump nomination and the recent warnings that a second Trump term will bring the end of democracy. 

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In this episode, Eli examines Kissinger's cunning when it came to working the refs of Washington, the press corps. Then he interviews the Re-Education's presidential historian, Tevi Troy about Kissinger and his recent trip to Israel. 

In this monologue only episode, Eli looks at why TikTok influencers are suddenly rediscovering Osama Bin Laden and what an earlier generation of terrorism apologists were saying in the months and years after 9-11. 

In this episode, Eli interviews Sol Stern about his recent essay in Commentary on the history of Palestinian pogroms against Jews. https://www.commentary.org/articles/sol-stern/century-of-palestinian-jew-hatred/ His monologue examines why Israel's response to a genocidal act of terror is being slandered as a genocide. 

Time Stamps: 

00:22 Monologue

16:56 Interview with Sol Stern 

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On Today's show, Eli talks with Nissan Dekalo, the deputy head of security for Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Nissan fought for more than eight hours on October 7 as he defended his Kibbutz from a wave of Hamas terrorists.

31 years ago, Bill Clinton called out the vile rhetoric of a rapper-activist named Sister Souljah. Since then, her name has become a term for when a political leader practices gatekeeping for his party against radical foil. In this episode, Eli looks at her legacy and asks why Joe Biden has not turned the Israel haters in his own party into modern Sister Souljahs.