Trump’s tariffs model McKinley; his divided coalition models Grover Cleveland

In his 2025 inaugural address, Donald Trump compared himself to former President William McKinley boasting that he, like McKinley, would make “our country very rich through tariffs.” 

A recent issue of The Economist drew a similar comparison, noting that McKinley was an imperialist who added Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines and Puerto Rico to U.S. territory and made Cuba a U.S. protectorate. Trump, of course, would like to annex Canada ...