By P.K.Balachandran
Colombo, January 31: In his inaugural oration on January 20, US President Donald Trump hailed William McKinley, who was President from 1897 to 1901, as his model. Trump praised the 25 th. US President McKinley for raising tariffs “to make America rich”.
Trump admired McKinley’s also for his expansionist policy. During McKinley’s tenure, the US acquired overseas territories, fought and won a war with a European power, Spain, and attempted to set international norms regarding trade with China.
In short, under McKinley, the United States emerged on the world stage in new and unprecedented ways giving a foretaste of what was to come after World War II, namely, America’s rise as a super power supplanting Britain.
The US victory in the war with Spain over Cuba saw Spain cede to the US, sovereignty over Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. It paved the way for the US to annex Hawaii, an independent country at that time.
In 2025, President Trump expressed admiration for McKinley, describing him as “a great but highly under-rated” President. Under McKinley, the US was “very rich through tariffs and through talent,” Trump said in his inaugural address. Trump then pledged to change the name of North America’s tallest peak, Denali, in Alaska, to Mount McKinley. In 2015, it had been named Mount Dinali by President Barack Obama to honour the indigenous people of Alaska.
McKinley wasn’t like Trump
Was McKinley like Trump? Historians have differed on their assessment of McKinley. Yes, he did take aggressive actions, but mainly under public pressure, they say. And he later regretted the actions as they were not an unmixed blessing. This, Trump has failed to take note of.
From 1901 to the 1960s, historians believed that McKinley was a “weak” President pressured into a war with Spain by popular passions and a nationalistic press. McKinley’s weakness extended to the domestic political arena also, they said. He was dubbed a “managed President”, managed by his cronies, especially businessman-politician Mark Hanna (full name Marcus Alonzo Hanna), a Republican politician who was a Senator from Ohio as well as chairman of the Republican National Committee.
In the liberal left wing era of the 1960s, historians portrayed McKinley as a “cunning and manipulative” leader bent on expanding American influence in the world. But, now, 40 years later, in the Trump era, his “gung ho” spirit is appreciated by at least President Trump.
Reluctant Strongman
But the fact was that McKinley was a reluctant strong man. He was hesitant to go to war against Spain over Cuba in 1898. The war was fought partly due to the sinking of the US naval ship, USS Maine in Havana harbour by Spain. But to McKinley’s credit, it must be said that he tried all diplomatic cards before he went to war.
Some historians argue that McKinley was driven to waging wars by economic considerations. Others contend that he believed in the “White man’s burden” to civilize Cubans and the Filipinos. According to others, he launched the US on an imperialist path to which it has stuck doggedly till date. Still other historians assert that he had a desire to establish a macho image of America.
McKinley is said to have established some practices now common in US Presidencies. He was the first to value public communications. He used the telephone, the press, and regular press conferences to communicate his ideas. He conducted public meetings and travelled the length and breadth of the US to link up with communities. He expanded the Presidential staff. In this respect he was like Trump.
But unlike Trump, McKinley was not a flamboyant leader. He was not dramatic in his gestures and expressions. He was an astute but low key politician, says Lewis L. Gould Professor Emeritus of American History, University of Texas in his article on McKinley.
Tryst with Tariffs
Andrew Jeong, writing on McKinley in Washington post says that it would be wrong to identify Mckinley with a high tariff regime. Economic historians point that the US economy had always been based on high tariffs, before, during and after McKinley’s term (1897-1901).
From 1861 to 1933, average tariffs on dutiable imports were 50% and remained around that level for several decades. And the US economy grew around 4% per year on average from the 1870s until 1913, higher than those of Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada in the same time span.
The reasons for economic growth were not necessarily due to high tariffs. It was due to increasing amounts of credit given by US banks and a spike in infrastructure-related construction such as on railroads and ships. And immigration provided cheap, unskilled labour and a small but vital pool of skilled workers also. Technological advances such as the telephone played a part.
When McKinley helped pass new tariff legislation in 1890 as a representative of Congress, raising the average duties on imports of manufactured goods to 49.5%, the measure was widely unpopular. The masses saw the tariffs as being in favour of the large companies and not the small man.
The high tariff issue led to the Republicans’ defeat in midterm elections that year and Republican President Benjamin Harrison lost to Democrat Grover Cleveland in the 1892 Presidential race. Mckinley had been shot in September 5, 1901 and he died a few days later.
McKinley’s lowered the tariff on Cuban sugar. This helped Cuba export its sugar to the US. But when the Democrats regained control of Congress, they reintroduced sugar tariffs in 1894, hurting Cuban sugar producers. This led to US-Spain clashes as Spain was then ruling Cuba. The US-Spanish war broke out in 1898.
What Trump has not realised is that McKinley eventually came round to accepting that free trade was the best way to increase US prosperity. As the US industrial base expanded it needed markets overseas and high tariff regimes were a barrier.
According to Robert W. Merry, the author of “President McKinley: Architect of the American Century,” McKinley had carved out the concept of “trade reciprocity.” in a speech in Buffalo in 1901, McKinley said: “What we produce beyond our domestic consumption must have a vent abroad. The period of exclusiveness is past. Reciprocity treaties are in harmony with the spirit of the times, measures of retaliation are not.”
According to Merry, a key distinction between McKinley and Trump is that McKinley used tariff reductions as a “reciprocal carrot” which arose from negotiations rather than from US Presidential fiats.
McKinley Regretted Wars
McKinley regretted fighting a war to seize the Philippines. It turned out to be an expensive acquisition given the phenomenal casualties. The Philippine-American War was a conflict between the US and Filipino nationalists that lasted from 1899 to 1902, after the US gained control of the Philippines from Spain following the Spanish-American War over Cuba.
Filipino nationalists, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, wanted independence from the United States. The “Philippine Republic” declared war on June 2, 1899. US Admiral George Dewey attacked Manila Bay and fighting spread to other part of the archipelago. By the time the Filipinos surrendered in 1902, over 4,200 American soldiers an over 20,000 Filipino soldiers died. In addition, 200,000 Filipino civilians died from violence, famine, and disease.
In the course of the war, a disturbed McKinley said that he wished that the American Admiral George Dewey had not sailed into Manila Bay.
It is in this light that Trump should view his plans to annex Greenland and the Panama Canal. Both Greenland and Panama have rubbished his claims and declared their intention to resist US aggression.
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