Donald Trump, just sworn in as the 47th president, was reelected to be a wrecking ball, a middle finger, the people’s punch to the Beltway’s mouth. And while this populist moment feels “unprecedented,” it’s not. The rebuke of the ruling class is encoded in our nation’s DNA. We have seen populist leaders like Donald Trump before. He stands on the shoulders of Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot, Alabama governor George Wallace, and Louisiana legend Huey Long. There have been populist senators, governors, newspaper editors, and radio broadcasters. But only rarely has a populist climbed as high as President Trump. In fact, it has happened only once before. The last populist to win the presidency was born before the American Revolution. He rose from nothing to become a great general. His adoring troops called him Old Hickory, and his enemies derided him as a bigamist and a tyrant in waiting. His name was Andrew Jackson, and he’s the guy who’s still on the 20 dollar bill. On today’s debut episode of Breaking History, Eli Lake explains how Andrew Jackson’s presidency is the best guide to what Trump’s second term could look like. Credits: Andrew Jackson: Good, Evil and the Presidency; PBS

The Re-Education host Eli Lake has a new show called Breaking History, brought to you by The Free Press. Breaking History breaks down the news, by breaking down history. Host Eli Lake covers everything from LBJ and the Roman Republic to Donald Trump and the chaos at Columbia. This twice a month show from The Free Press delivers the best historians, authors, and reporters by mining the archives of human experience to figure out the present. George Santayana wrote, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Follow the new show Breaking History to resist the repetition.

In this episode Eli examines the life of Menachem Begin when he was a wanted man in the years before the state of Israel was created. His guest is Daniel Gordis, author of Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel's Soul.

In this episode, Eli traces the history of Jews who use their words to side with the enemies of the Jewish people. His guest is the chief Rabbi of the Re-Education and the host of the Good Faith Effort podcast, Ari Lamm.

In this episode, Eli looks at why so many elite institutions are afraid of firing those that engage in insubordination or are incompetent. His guest is Michael Moynihan, co-host of the Fifth Column and America's premier plagiarism cop.