Trump only living U.S. president whose ancestors didn’t own slaves
Every living U.S. president, past and present, has at least one ancestor who owned slaves, with one exception — Donald Trump.
An investigation by Reuters released Tuesday into the genealogies of “America’s political elite” found that President Joseph R. Biden and all former presidents still alive are direct descendants of slaveholders.
That includes Democrats Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and even America’s first Black president, Barack Obama — through his White mother’s side — as well as Republican George W. Bush.
The only living president not descended from slaveholders is the Republican Trump, whose mother Mary MacLeod was born in Scotland and married Frederick Trump, the son of a German immigrant.
To be clear, I merely find the above amusing. If Jimmy Carter—whom most people see as a decent human being even if he was an incompetent president—has slave owners in his ancestry, this doesn't reflect on him at all. I'm not a believer in biblical notions of "sins of the fathers." This also informs my stance on slavery reparations. Yes, a horrible sin was committed against a huge collectivity of black folks, but you can't rightly expect the innocent descendants of slave owners to pay for their ancestors' sins. Besides, isn't there something crass about assigning a dollar value to something that heinous?
I imagine the Trump hagiographers, though, will have a field day: they can add Trump's pristine lineage to their list of reasons for lionizing The Donald.
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