What were Trump's exact words about the Civil War?
Executive summary
Donald Trump has made several public remarks about the U.S. Civil War across years; his most direct, repeatedly reported formulations include: “People don’t realize, you know, the Civil War, if you think about it, why?” and “Why could that one not have been worked out?” as well as “I mean, had Andrew Jackson been a little later, you wouldn’t have had the Civil War,” and remarks that the conflict “could’ve been negotiated” or that he is “so attracted to seeing it” [1] [2] [3]. These quotes, appearing in interviews and rallies from 2017 through 2024–2025, sparked immediate pushback from historians and political opponents who cite slavery as the central cause [4] [5].
1. The core quotes: what he literally said in interviews
In a 2017 interview with the Washington Examiner that aired on SiriusXM, Trump asked aloud, “People don’t realize, you know, the Civil War, if you think about it, why?” and added, “Why could that one not have been worked out?” and said of Andrew Jackson, “I mean, had Andrew Jackson been a little later, you wouldn’t have had the Civil War” [1] [2]. Those exact lines were transcribed and reported by multiple outlets as his direct words from that interview [1] [2].
2. Rally and speech comments repeating and expanding the theme
At a January 2024 Iowa rally Trump said the Civil War was “fascinating” and “I’m so attracted to seeing it,” then explicitly mused that “there was something that could’ve been negotiated… Abraham Lincoln, if he negotiated it, we wouldn’t know who Lincoln was. He wouldn’t have been the Abraham Lincoln. But that would’ve been ok,” a formulation reported verbatim by Rolling Stone and other outlets [3]. Separate coverage from The Hill and other outlets summarized the same theme — that Trump suggested the war might have been avoidable through negotiation — quoting him directly [5].
3. Context, repetition, and related remarks linking civil war language to other arguments
Trump’s Civil War remarks are part of a pattern of public commentary in which he questions established historical interpretations or invokes the idea of internal fracture; for example, he circulated a quote in 2019 warning a potential “Civil War like fracture” if he were removed from office, which he retweeted from an ally [6]. In late 2025 he also made comments tying post–Civil War legal doctrines and birthright citizenship to the Civil War era in a POLITICO interview — saying the birthright clause “was meant for the … the babies of slaves, and if you look at the exact dates … it all had to do with the Civil War” — another set of quoted assertions reported in full transcript form [7].
4. How reporters and historians recorded — and reacted to — those exact words
News organizations transcribed and published Trump’s phrasing, which made the quotes widely available for scrutiny [1] [2] [3] [7]. Historians immediately responded that Trump’s speculations misstate the well-documented centrality of slavery as the cause of secession and war; scholars called his claims “entirely wrong in every respect” and pointed to secession declarations that explicitly cite slavery as the primary cause [4]. Outlets like The Hill documented political pushback from Republicans and Democrats who questioned the substance of his remarks [5].
5. Misinformation and the importance of primary sourcing
Some later social posts and doctored screenshots amplified or distorted civil‑war-related statements from Trump’s circle — for example, a falsified chyron attributing the line “If Trump had been president during the Civil War, we would've won it” to Fox’s Jesse Watters circulated online, which fact‑checkers found to be fabricated [8]. This underscores the value of returning to original interviews and full transcripts when reporting exact words; the core, verifiable Trump quotes above come from published interviews, rally transcripts and reputable news transcripts [1] [2] [3] [7].