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Grover Cleveland’s grandson on Trump, his own ‘weird’ view of history
WASHINGTON – Growing up, the portrait hanging on the living room wall of his boyhood home in Baltimore reminded George Cleveland that his grandfather had been a really big deal.
Cleveland never knew his father’s father. He died almost half a century before Cleveland was born. But when your grandfather was president of the United States, history fills in the blanks. And when your grandfather earned a special footnote in presidential history, Jeopardy! turns him into a popular trivia question.
A: The only U.S. president to serve non-consecutive terms.
Q: Who is Grover Cleveland?
George Cleveland, a self-employed consultant who lives in rural Tamworth, New Hampshire, is the grandson of Grover Cleveland. Yes, that Grover Cleveland. The one who for 132 years has held the distinction of being the only president to leave office in defeat and return four years later. The one whose second term ended almost a century and a half ago, in 1897.
The automobile and the telephone were still new inventions when Grover Cleveland occupied the White House, so the fact that he has a living grandson makes George Cleveland himself a bit of a curiosity.
“It’s kind of weird, and it’s kind of fun, and it does give you an interesting perspective on history,” Cleveland said.
Starting next week, though, history – and Jeopardy! questions – will need a rewrite.
Donald Trump, who lost the presidency to Joe Biden four years ago, returns to the White House on Monday to start a second term that will earn him a place in the history books alongside Grover Cleveland as the only presidents to serve terms that were not back-to-back.
‘Eventually somebody is going to break it’
People keep asking George Cleveland if he’s upset that Trump is intruding on his grandfather’s place in history.
No, he’s not.
“It’s like any other record,” he said. “Eventually somebody is going to break it.”
His thoughts on Trump? “I don’t have any,” he insisted.
Did he vote for Trump? “They have curtains and voting booths for a reason,” he replied, a diplomatic answer worthy of a seasoned politician.
Then, finally, a confession: “I don’t think I put a check next to his name.”
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For much of his life, George Cleveland’s family didn’t make much of a fuss about their famous ancestor. When he was young, George Cleveland, who’s now 72, used to think of his grandfather as almost a mythical figure – someone he’d heard and read about, but who didn’t seem real.
He was.
Cleveland’s father is Richard Cleveland, the fourth of Grover Cleveland’s five children with his wife, Frances Folsom. Grover Cleveland was a latecomer when it came to starting a family. A bachelor when he became president, he was 49 when he and Frances married in the White House Blue Room. He was 60 and had just finished his second term by the time Richard came along in 1897. Richard, in turn, was 54 when George Cleveland was born.
George Cleveland was probably 9 or 10 before he started to understand the relevance of the large man with the bushy mustache staring down at him from the living room painting, which is now in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. The same man whose face appears on the $1,000 bill. (He doesn’t have many of those, the grandson jokes.)
His father took him to a birthday celebration at his grandfather’s gravesite in Princeton, New Jersey. Young George was captivated by the pageantry surrounding the event – the uniformed soldiers, their long rifles, their sharp salutes.
“To me, that was very, very impressive,” he recalled. “I sort of realized there was something big there.”
George Cleveland, who has an older sister, Frances Cleveland, living in France, got glimpses into his grandfather’s life in the White House through mementoes like the portrait in his family home and a few grainy black-and-white photographs.
In one, a Christmas tree decorated with tinsel and bulbs stands in the Oval Room on the presidential mansion’s second floor. Underneath it are several dolls that by today’s standards, George Cleveland laughs, would be considered kind of creepy.
In the 1990s, George Cleveland decided to dig deeper into his grandfather’s background and even started performing historical interpretations and character impersonations – often dressed in period costumes – of Grover Cleveland and other historical figures.
Trump vs. Cleveland: ‘Night and day’ differences
With Trump’s return to the White House, some people naturally look for parallels between him and Grover Cleveland. George Cleveland sees only differences – “probably night and day” differences, he said.
“Grover was hyper-focused and a workaholic,” he said.
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Grover Cleveland (the nation’s 22nd and 24th president) was a fiscally conservative Democrat. But if he were alive today, “he’d probably be a libertarian,” George Cleveland said. “I don’t think that’s going to apply to Trump.”
Trump (45th and 47th president) is filling his Cabinet and government with loyal supporters, but “Grover was violently opposed to any kind of patronage whatsoever,” his grandson said. “Grover never, never bought into that. He would always go for the most qualified person. That annoyed a lot of people in Congress” – and contributed to his defeat in 1888.
Trump, like the high-powered business executive he was before he became president, delegates authority and doesn’t sweat the details. But Grover Cleveland often did unpleasant tasks himself. As sheriff in Erie County, New York, he personally pulled the lever to hang two men instead of assigning the task to one of his deputies.
“He did not believe a subordinate should do the dirty work,” George Cleveland said. “He didn’t shirk responsibility.”
Unlike Trump, who hates to accept defeat and seldom admits to making a mistake, Grover Cleveland “could admit when he was wrong,” his grandson said.
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‘A celebratory manifestation of democracy’
Not everything in Grover Cleveland’s background was flattering.
During his first term, he expanded the Chinese Exclusion Act by signing a law that prohibited Chinese immigrants who returned to their homeland from coming back to the United States.
The law was “one of the most awful things we’ve ever done,” George Cleveland said, and ran counter to his grandfather’s views on Hawaii, where the monarchy had been overthrown by a coup led by American businessman and lawyers shortly before his first term began.
When he came into office, Grover Cleveland opposed the annexation of Hawaii and supported the return of the non-white monarchy, which he believed had been overthrown illegally.
“I would like to think that had Grover lived longer, he would have softened up on the Chinese Exclusion Law,” George Cleveland said.
On Monday, when Trump takes the oath of office, George Cleveland will watch from home – if his internet is working. (In rural New Hampshire, it sometimes doesn’t.) He has attended two presidential inaugurals in person – Bill Clinton’s first in 1993 and Barack Obama’s first in 2009, which he remembers as “one of the most spectacular experiences of my life.”
“They’re important events to watch,” he said. “It is a celebratory manifestation of democracy. At least that’s what it has been.”
While Trump’s return will mean Grover Cleveland is no longer the only commander-in-chief to lose the presidency and then win another term, his place in history is undisputed.
“Grover is still the first,” his grandson said.
And he’s still on the $1,000 bill.
Michael Collins covers the White House. Follow him on X @mcollinsNEWS.
Grover Cleveland’s grandson, George Cleveland, recently spoke out about his unique perspective on history and his thoughts on Donald Trump’s presidency. In an interview with a major news outlet, George shared his thoughts on Trump’s leadership style and policies, calling them “unconventional” and “divisive.”
As the grandson of the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, George Cleveland has always had a keen interest in politics and history. However, he admits that his perspective on these topics is often seen as “weird” by others.
Despite this, George remains outspoken about his beliefs and is not afraid to voice his opinions on current events. When asked about Trump’s presidency, he expressed concerns about the direction of the country and the impact of divisive rhetoric on American society.
George Cleveland’s unique perspective on history and politics offers a fresh and thought-provoking take on current events. As he continues to share his views with the public, it is clear that his family’s legacy has played a significant role in shaping his outlook on the world.
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Grover Cleveland, Trump, history, presidential history, political views, presidential descendants, American presidents, Grover Cleveland’s grandson, Trump administration, political commentary, family legacy
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