CONTRARY to popular belief, the president that United States President Donald Trump admires most is not Russian President Vladimir Putin or Argentinian President Javier Milei. It's William McKinley, the 25th US president, who imposed protective tariffs to grow the American economy during his brief term from 1897 to 1901.
McKinley has an outsized and enduring presence in our history. He ordered the annexation of the entire Philippine archipelago after the naval forces of Admiral George Dewey swiftly smashed the Spanish naval forces in the Battle of Manila Bay in May 1898. In doing so, McKinley invoked both "God" and the imperialist doctrine called "manifest destiny." It's the same doctrine that underpinned his earlier decision to seize Hawaii and Puerto Rico and liberate Cuba in one fell swoop. The Treaty of Paris, in which Spain ceded its rights over the Philippines to the US, was also signed during McKinley's administration.
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