Watch: Lincoln Freed the Slaves, Reagan Won the Cold War, Now Trump Reveals Phrase He Wants to Be Remembered By

On Sunday, CBS News aired its post-midterms “60 Minutes” interview with President Donald Trump, offering plenty to dissect. As he described how he intends to spend his remaining two years in office, Trump compared himself to historical leaders-claiming Lincoln freed enslaved people and Reagan won the Cold War-and disclosed a phrase he wants to be remembered by. Do you want a short summary, a deeper fact-check of his historical claims, or an article-style writeup? I can also pull key quotes or the interview transcript if you’d like.

Swift summary + brief fact-check:

– What happened: CBS’s post-midterms 60 Minutes interviewed President Trump about how he plans to spend the remainder of his term. He compared himself to past leaders (saying, for example, that Lincoln “freed enslaved people” and that Reagan “won the Cold War”) and offered a short phrase he hopes people will remember him by.

– Fact-check of the two historical claims:

– Lincoln and emancipation: Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation proclamation in 1863, which declared enslaved people in rebelling Confederate states to be free; it did not instantly free all enslaved people nationwide (it did not apply to slave-holding border states loyal to the Union). The 13th Amendment (ratified in 1865) abolished slavery nationwide.Lincoln played a central and consequential role in the legal and military processes that lead to emancipation, but freedom was achieved through a combination of presidential action, Congress, Union military advances, and the actions of enslaved people themselves.

– Reagan and the Cold War: Ronald Reagan’s policies-military buildup, economic pressure, and high-profile rhetoric-are widely cited as factors in the Cold War’s end, and some credit his governance with pressuring the Soviet Union.Historians and political scientists generally treat the end of the Cold War as the result of multiple causes: Soviet economic weakness, internal reform under Mikhail Gorbachev (glasnost and perestroika), popular movements in eastern Europe, and Western policies including, but not limited to, Reagan’s. Moast scholars stop short of crediting any one leader alone with “winning” the Cold War.

– Context: Comparing oneself to iconic leaders is a common rhetorical move in politics; historical outcomes are usually complex and multi-causal.

Tell me which follow-up you want: a full transcript of the exchange, verbatim quotes from the interview, a longer fact-check with sources, or an article-style writeup.

Read more…

CBS News aired its post-midterms “60 Minutes” interview with President Donald Trump Sunday, and there was a lot to unpack. The president will spend the last two years of his […] The post Watch: Lincoln Freed the Slaves, Reagan Won the Cold War, Now Trump Reveals Phrase He Wants to Be Remembered By appeared first on The Western Journal.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases