At the inauguration, Jackson’s backwoodsmen were intent on fulfilling every low expectation that eastern cosmopolitans had of them. The “deplorables” rushed the White House, piling into every room and climbing, in the words of one commentator, “with their muddy boots on[to] the damask-covered chairs”. When refreshments were served, they smashed plates, cups, and glasses, and stole all the ices “so that nothing was left for the ladies”. The Jacksonian era had arrived. Democracy in America would never quite look the same.

Like Trump, Jackson was an unvarnished soul. He duelled men whom he felt had insulted him, and carried around a bullet from one such engagement that left him in permanent pain. His policies could be ruthless, expelling entire Indian nations from the Southeast and, in a stroke, disestablishing the Federal Reserve’s precursor, the Second Bank of the United States. In all these ways, Jackson can be seen as a predecessor to some of Trump’s radical promises.