Happy 216th Abe: Today is Lincoln's birthday, a president Trump is fixated on
Abraham Lincoln was born on this day in 1809 in Kentucky. He would go on to rank among the best presidents in U.S. history, and he still makes news headlines when referenced by today's politicians.
The nation's 16th president is known for guiding the nation through the Civil War and preserving the union while paving the way for an end to slavery. He died on April 15, 1865, shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.
Wednesday marks what would have been his 216th birthday.
On this day in 1861, Lincoln spoke of the nation's future
On Lincoln's birthday in 1861, he was on his way to Washington for his first inauguration (which used to take place in March) as the Civil War was about to begin. Seven Southern states had already seceded with the fate of Kentucky, a slave state, still unknown.
In that atmosphere, Lincoln made a stop in Cincinnati on Feb. 12, where he gave a speech before a bipartisan crowd that sought to instill hope for the fate of the nation, as recounted in the Cincinnati Enquirer, part of the Paste BN Network.
"I hope that our late difficulties will also pass away, and that you shall see in the spirit of Cincinnati – good old Cincinnati – for years and for years to come; and that once in every four years, by your constitutionally elected president of the United States of America, a large share may welcome us here from across the river; that we shall still have a president, and still welcome him in the spirit of Cincinnati with all the cordial reception that I have been enjoying here," Lincoln said that day.
Lincoln frequently invoked by Trump
President Donald Trump has compared his presidency with Lincoln's and commented on Lincoln's accomplishments frequently over the years. During his 2025 inauguration, Trump took the oath of office while first lady Melania Trump held two Bibles: one given to him by his mother, and the other the Bible used by Lincoln in his 1861 swearing-in.
“I think it would be hard if George Washington came back from the dead, and he chose Abraham Lincoln as his vice president, I think it would have been very hard for them to beat me," Trump once said, according to reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker in the book "I Alone Can Fix It."
While campaigning for re-election during his first term, Trump famously said he'd done the most for Black Americans of any president since Lincoln – a comment disputed by former President Joe Biden in a 2020 debate moment that went viral. He's also claimed no other president has been treated worse by media, including Lincoln.
Last year, historians and civil rights leaders condemned comments from Trump suggesting that the Civil War could have been averted with negotiation over slavery.
“So many mistakes were made,” Trump said at a campaign stop in Iowa last January. “See, there was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you. I think you could have negotiated that. All the people died. So many people died."
“Abraham Lincoln, of course, if he negotiated it, you probably wouldn’t even know who Abraham Lincoln was,” he said.
Contributing: Sudiksha Kochi, David Jackson, Joel Shannon and Mabinty Quarshie; Jeff Suess, the Cincinnati Enquirer
(This story was updated to fix a typo.)