America’s most controversial president: Teddy Roosevelt’s complicated legacy

On June 14, President Trump hosted UFC Freedom 250 on the White House South Lawn for his 80th birthday and America’s 250th anniversary. The historic event featured seven thrilling fights, showcasing some of the UFC’s top fighters in a one-of-a-kind display of American strength and resilience.

But Trump isn’t the first president to host fights at the White House. Many forget that Teddy Roosevelt regularly used the president’s house for sparring and boxing, often training with military aides, visitors, and even professional boxers as part of his “strenuous life” philosophy.

This penchant for physical and mental toughness translated to his six children. Roosevelt was known for pushing them toward strenuous activities, outdoor adventures, and intellectual curiosity that would hone their physical skills and their moral character.

“He would just take [his young children] out in the middle of the forest and say, ‘Find your way home,”’ Glenn Beck recounts to bestselling author Brad Meltzer, who is known for his children’ s books on prominent American figures.

Out of all the American figures he’s written about over the years, Teddy Roosevelt, Meltzer says, is “the most complicated.”

While Roosevelt’s political career is undeniably marked by several controversial decisions and beliefs, he chose to focus on the 26th president’s best traits in his new book, “I am Teddy Roosevelt.”

Roosevelt’s father, Meltzer explains, taught young Teddy to stand up for the underprivileged and downtrodden. “His father says, ‘When you have money and you have power, that doesn’t make you fantastic or strong or terrific. What it does is it gives you a responsibility — a responsibility to help other people,”’ he recalls, noting that this care for others extended especially to orphans and the working class.

Roosevelt’s protectiveness translated to the environment as well. He is widely regarded as America’s greatest conservationist president thanks to establishing five national parks, 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, four national game preserves, and protecting roughly 230 million acres of public land during his presidency.

While Glenn understands why a children’s book should highlight Roosevelt’s strengths, he personally has a difficult time reconciling some of his controversial perspectives.

“He was a big eugenist guy,” says Glenn, highlighting how Roosevelt pushed for more breeding among certain white Americans while discouraging it among people he saw as unfit or inferior.

Meltzer agrees that Roosevelt’s belief in eugenics is deeply problematic but still finds him “an incredibly great hero” — especially for kids.

“I think today Teddy Roosevelt is sometimes held out as being that strong guy, the macho guy … but that’s not who he is when he’s growing up. He’s actually sick a lot. He’s smaller than everyone else. He gets picked on,” he says.

“He had mice and spiders he used to keep in his room. He was a weird kid,” he adds.

But tragic loss would soon turn the fragile, intellectual Teddy into the tough, fearless leader he’s best known for today.

“His father dies and then soon after his mother and his wife die on the same day, Glenn, on Valentine’s Day,” says Meltzer.

“He moves to their ranch out in North Dakota, and … he just sits under the stars, and he listens to the wolves. … And if being out in nature teaches him anything, it’s that success doesn’t come from having natural gifts; it comes from how hard you work those gifts,” he continues, “and that’s where he falls in love and starts protecting the outdoors.”

On July 4, 1886, in a speech in Dickinson, Dakota Territory (his first major Independence Day address as a young rancher/politician), Roosevelt famously said, “Like all Americans, I like big things; big prairies, big forests and mountains, big wheat fields, railroads — and herds of cattle too; big factories, steamboats, and everything else. But we must keep steadily in mind that no people were ever yet benefited by riches if their prosperity corrupted their virtue.”

“That’s when he starts protecting Yellowstone and Yosemite and Niagara Falls, and he creates five national parks. … They exist because of Teddy Roosevelt,” says Meltzer.

Glenn’s favorite Roosevelt story by far, however, is his shocking response to being shot in the chest while on his way to deliver a 90-minute campaign speech in Milwaukee. Instead of seeking immediate medical care, Roosevelt delivered the speech anyway, famously declaring, “It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose!”

“Where does [that kind of strength] come from?” exclaims Glenn.

“[Roosevelt] is complicated,” Meltzer emphasizes, “but he has these hero moments that you’re like, ‘Oh my goodness.”’

To hear more, watch the video above.

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