Weird History: 9

Grant Your Wishes

A lot of Republicans charged President John Fitzgerald Kennedy with nepotism when he asked his brother, Bobby, to serve as Attorney General.

The king of keeping it in the family was President Ulysses S. Grant who placed his father on the payroll as postmaster of Covington, Kentucky. His wife’s brother-in-law James Casey was appointed Collector of Customs to the Port of New Orleans; another brother-in-law served as an appraiser of customs in San Francisco, his cousin Silas Hudson was named a minister to Guatemala, and another brother-in-law was minister to Denmark. In all, nearly forty people associated with Grant, including thirteen relatives, benefited from “Grantism.”

Without saying Trump’s name, because I just would never say Trump—like why would I even bring Trump’s name into this? But there is a parallel here, wouldn’t you think?

On a side note: In 1908, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, Charles Joseph Bonaparte, created the Bureau of Investigation, which later was known as the FBI.