--- title: Donald Trump: Most People Don't Know Lincoln Was Republican description: President Trump believes that Americans don't know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican canonical: https://time.com/4708749/donald-trump-abraham-lincoln-republican/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-22T00:55:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:31.170Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Thinks America Doesn't Know Abraham Lincoln Was a Republican og:description: Though the GOP are often called "The Party of Lincoln" og:url: https://time.com/4708749/donald-trump-abraham-lincoln-republican/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0377fcdc121d1025/6988bf51bc6cfc48943e096a/donald-trump-lincoln.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Campaigns In Golden, Colorado og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Thinks America Doesn't Know Abraham Lincoln Was a Republican twitter:description: Though the GOP are often called "The Party of Lincoln" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0377fcdc121d1025/6988bf51bc6cfc48943e096a/donald-trump-lincoln.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Thinks America Doesn't Know Abraham Lincoln Was a Republican > Sponsored content. 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At a rally in Louisville on Monday, President Donald Trump sang the praises of "the great 19th century statesman" Henry Clay, the former Speaker of the House, U.S. Senator and Whig Party co-founder._ by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Mar 22, 2017 12:55 AM UTC  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump addresses a campaign rally in the Rodeo Arena at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds October 29, 2016 in Golden, Colorado. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump addresses a campaign rally in the Rodeo Arena at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds October 29, 2016 in Golden, Colorado.Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Mar 22, 2017 12:55 AM UTC [President Trump](http://time.com/4708727/neil-gorsuch-donald-trump-judge-attack-disheartening-demoralizing/) believes that most Americans don’t know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. “Great president. Most people don’t even know he was a Republican,” Trump said while addressing attendees at the National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner. “Does anyone know? Lot of people don’t know that.” > [](https://twitter.com/ClaudiaKoerner/status/844338560572416000) Trump then said Republicans need to spread the word that Lincoln was a Republican, appearing to be unaware of the fact that the GOP is commonly referred to as the “party of Lincoln.” “Let’s take an ad, let’s use one of those PACs,” he said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4708749/donald-trump-abraham-lincoln-republican/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4708749/donald-trump-abraham-lincoln-republican/"},"headline":"President Trump Thinks America Doesn't Know Abraham Lincoln Was a Republican","datePublished":"2017-03-22T00:55:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:54:31.170Z","description":"\"Great president\"","url":"https://time.com/4708749/donald-trump-abraham-lincoln-republican/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0377fcdc121d1025/6988bf51bc6cfc48943e096a/donald-trump-lincoln.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0377fcdc121d1025/6988bf51bc6cfc48943e096a/donald-trump-lincoln.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump Campaigns In Golden, Colorado","caption":"Donald Trump Campaigns In Golden, Colorado","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4708749/donald-trump-abraham-lincoln-republican/","name":"President Trump Thinks America Doesn't Know Abraham Lincoln Was a Republican"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Trump Praised Both Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay. 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