By Thomas Madison
There are many similarities between Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan. I have made this point several times lately, only to be ridiculed by a few of my readers, in particular fellow conservatives.
I have some sad news for the pundits and haters who believe the Trump phenomenon is a flash in the pan. He ain’t going away. I expect he will only grow in popularity over the next several months leading to the primary. By then I expect it to be a foregone conclusion. Trump will be the GOP candidate, and whatever weak career parasite the Democrats have to offer, The Donald will smoke him or her like a cheap cigar, and he will rebuild the Republican brand, a la Ronald Reagan.
Call it whatever you like – the stars aligning, divine providence, dumb luck (I prefer divine providence)! Whatever! I’m on board! I estimate that a full 80% of conservatives I am in touch with, which is tens of thousands daily, are likewise fully on board the Trump Express.
My own list of similarities between The Donald and The Ronald is similar to Jim Meyers’ list, below. However, I add “Love of Country” at #1, “Strength of Conviction” at #2, and “Fearlessness” at #3. The rest of my list is about the same as Meyers’.
Powdered Wig’s Top Three similarities between Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan:
1. Love of Country. How many times did we watch The Ronald tear up while giving a memorial address at a foreign American cemetery where lie the remains of thousands of America’s heroes, or choke up while saluting our flag. Although I have never seen The Donald tear up (I’m not sure he has tear ducts), I have seen and heard the passion in his voice when he is discussing issues critically important to Americans, from illegal immigration to the screwing we are receiving from our foreign trade partners.
2. Strength of Conviction. It was the first thing that endeared me to Uncle Ron. He believed what he believed, and what he believed was that which was most beneficial to the American people. Likewise, Trump. Strong defense, lower taxes, secure borders, trade reform. All convictions of the strongest sort, shared by The Donald and The Ronald.
3. Fearlessness. Reagan faced off against the incredibly scary Soviet Union single-handedly, ultimately turning the former superpower into a whimpering mass of poverty and capitulation. I was stationed across the Mediterranean, in Italy, when The Ronald sent missiles through Qaddafi’s tent flaps (it was a dicey time), which altered Qaddafi’s outlook on life and US relations dramatically. Qaddafi gratefully surrendered his weapons of mass destruction and became a model citizen.
A Powdered Wig reader recently commented that The Donald doesn’t know what he is getting himself into, that he is not prepared for the intense pressure he is about to face. I had to laugh…. OUT LOUD! Donald Trump does multi-billion dollar deals, where the slightest slip of an attorney’s pen can make him and his family homeless. Trump eats pressure for breakfast, and washes it down with carpet tacks. He thrives on it. He can’t get enough. The more he gets, the better he performs. Pressure? Ha! Like the career parasites facing The Donald in this race know anything about REAL pressure. Being an empty suit career parasite, making decisions with no real consequence, where you get your next taxpayer-funded paycheck regardless of how the deal works out for your constituents, is a wee bit different than rolling the dice, believing in yourself, and signing on the dotted line, so that your family may have a better life. Having been in that situation many times, I can tell you from personal experience that looking across the dinner table at your children, knowing that a deal you just made may negatively affect their lives, is not easy. Donald Trump is the only candidate in this race who truly understands that.
From Jim Meyers, Newsmax
Few people thought former Hollywood star Ronald Reagan could ever become president — until he was elected twice.
Few people thought business mogul Donald Trump could be a serious presidential candidate — until he shot to the top of most polls amid a crowded GOP field.
Here is a Newsmax look at 15 things The Donald has in common with The Gipper.
1. Like Reagan, Trump is a Washington outsider. Reagan was twice elected governor of California but never served in Congress. Trump has never held political office. And then as now, being an outsider is a virtue to voters who desperately want change.
2. Reagan was dismissed as a serious candidate, and so was Trump. “The establishment critics said the exact same things about Reagan,” Jeffrey Lord, a former Reagan aide who is close to the Trump campaign, told The Telegraph. “Reagan was ridiculed as ‘not serious’ and a B-movie actor, and they said over and over he could never win — until he did. It’s happening again. I really feel it.”
3. Trump and Reagan were both attacked by the establishment as being extreme and simplistic. Yet people were so fed up with the state of the country under Jimmy Carter that Reagan beat him in a landslide. As Trump’s showing in the polls demonstrates, people are once again fed up with establishment politics.
4. Trump shares Reagan’s “passion” for what he believes in. Reagan son’s Michael Reagan recently told Newsmax that Trump speaks with the kind of passion his father so brilliantly conveyed. “That’s why America right now has surrounded Trump, in this case, because he’s off the cuff and he speaks from his own passion.”
5. Trump espouses similar views as Reagan on illegal immigration. Trump created controversy — and won support from many — for his outspoken comments about illegal immigration and the lack of border security. Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986, making it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit illegal immigrants and requiring employers to attest to their employees’ immigration status.
6. Trump is a straight-talker, like Reagan. He doesn’t hide behind political correctness, as his comments about illegal immigration demonstrate. Reagan talked to people from the heart and was dubbed The Great Communicator.
7. Trump began as a Democrat before becoming a Republican. Reagan, too, was initially a liberal Democrat, but he backed Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon and went on to register as a Republican in 1964.
8. Trump, like Reagan, has been a TV star. Reagan hosted “General Electric Theater” in the 1950s and “Death Valley Days” in the 1960s. Trump found TV stardom with “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice.”
9. Trump seeks to follow in Reagan’s footsteps and succeed a liberal, big-government Democratic president. And Barack Obama is even further to the left than Jimmy Carter was.
10. Trump and Reagan both opposed runaway public employees’ unions. Trump told Bill O’Reilly that he thought Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is “doing what’s right for his state” by reining in public workers’ unions. Reagan in August 1981 fired more than 11,000 air traffic controllers after they went on strike in violation of a federal law barring government unions from striking.
11. Trump shares Reagan’s overall aim as president: to make America great again. Trump said he began the process of trademarking the slogan “Make America Great Again” and criticized some of his GOP opponents for using it. Reagan prominently featured the slogan on his campaign materials.
12. Trump favors tax reduction, as did Reagan. The reduction in tax rates championed by “Reaganomics” sought to spur economic growth. Trump has called for a repeal of the estate tax, the lowering of taxes on capital gains and dividends, and reducing the corporate tax rate to zero to spur job growth.
13. Trump, like Reagan, is pro-life. In 1982, Reagan stated: “Simple morality dictates that unless and until someone can prove the unborn human is not alive, we must give it the benefit of the doubt and assume it is (alive). And, thus, it should be entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Trump said in April 2011 that he was pro-life after years of being pro-choice.
14. Trump and Reagan both have defended gun rights and the Second Amendment. Reagan in 1986 signed the Firearm Owners Protection Act, which among other things ended federal records-keeping on ammunition sales. He said if we give up “that part of the Constitution” that is the Second Amendment, “we give up part of our freedom and increase the chances that we will lose it all.” Trump told Breitbart News in April: “It is so important that we maintain the Second Amendment and that we maintain it strongly. And one of the main reasons is because the good people, the upstanding people, follow laws and norms, but the bad ones don’t.”
15. Reagan was the first president who had been divorced. President Trump would be the second. Reagan divorced Jane Wyman before marrying Nancy Davis in 1952. Donald and Ivana Trump divorced and he went on to wed Marla Maples in 1993 and Melania Knauss in 2004.
