Leahy: What Trump Can Learn From John Tyler

It is easy to see similarities between President John Tyler and President Donald Trump:

A president who roiled the political class, angered the press, strained tenuous ties to his own party and allowed his agenda to founder. In the background, some wondered if he was even a legitimate president.

It sounds like the current White House occupant, Donald Trump. But it’s really the story of a predecessor: Virginia’s own John Tyler.

While Trump is frequently compared to other historical characters (does he resemble Robert Welch, Shelley Levine, Macbeth or Lyndon Johnson?), none is a perfect match.

That includes Tyler. But threads in Tyler’s experience echo in Trump’s presidency. And they are fascinating.

Tyler assumed office upon the death of William Henry Harrison (a scion of one of Virginia’s most prominent families) in 1841. Constitutional ambiguities as to his role as the new president forced Tyler to assert his right to exercise all the powers of the office. While Tyler succeed, and set an invaluable precedent, his foes continued to call him “his accidency.”

Among the most powerful of those foes was the leading member of the political establishment of his day, and a fellow Virginia native: Sen. Henry Clay.

Continue reading Norm Leahy’s column at The Washington Post.