Presidential historian explains why Trump refuses to learn from his mistakes

On MSNBC Saturday, presidential historian Jon Meacham broke down one of the biggest flaws in the Trump presidency — and a clear reason why he has been unable to protect the American people from the coronavirus pandemic.

"One of the tragedies of the era is that the president manages to fulfill, every time, one's preexisting view of him," said Meacham. "There's never been a president — not never. I cannot think of a president off the top of my head who has so self-evidently failed to learn on the job. Abraham Lincoln starts out saying he would protect slavery in Southern states, and ends up on January 1, 1863 with the Emancipation Proclamation. John Kennedy screws up the Bay of Pigs in 1961. By October 1962 he manages the Cuban Missile Crisis. RonaldReagan comes in talking about the Soviet Union as an evil empire. By May he's in Red Square playing with babies. Right?"

"So you have these moments in our history where presidents have challenged their bases, not simply coddled them, and learned from experience,' said Meacham. "And in this case, the president continues to simply coddle his base at a dangerous level, and almost willfully doesn't want to learn on the job."

Watch below: