Donald Trump confidant and political consultant Roger Stone compared Trump to Ronald Reagan and said that Trump has designed his own campaign, in an interview released Monday.
“You know, Trump, to his credit — and this was really his vision, not in any way mine — committed himself to an entirely communications-based strategy, something that veteran political strategists like me were skeptical about,” Stone told Politico’s Glenn Thrush.
Stone was with Trump’s campaign as an adviser until August when he quit. He said, “I quit because the campaign can only have one strategist, and he’s entitled to call that shot.”
Stone has experience working on multiple presidential campaigns, including Richard Nixon’s. When he came onboard Trump’s campaign he sought to establish a more traditionally-run campaign with pollsters and paid media. However, Trump went his own way.
“The notion that you could combat — let’s take Florida — $40 million worth in negative television simply by going on ‘Fox and Friends’ and responding, I rejected that idea, but in the end, he turns out to be right about it, and I turned out to be wrong,” Stone said.
Stone first met Trump in 1979 when he was setting up a finance committee for Reagan’s campaign. The political consultant now sees similarities between Trump and the former president.
“I find the way that Trump assimilates and uses information to be very similar to Reagan. Nobody gave Reagan his notecards. Reagan made up his own notecards. Nobody hands Donald Trump his notes for a speech. He writes out his own notes,” Stone said. (RELATED: Speechwriters And Teleprompters: The Trump Campaign Is ‘Evolving’)
The political consultant went on to say, “Trump is … not a politician, but he’s a political figure in the Reagan mold. [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] wants to be Reagan, but unfortunately for him, he’s Nixon. Shifty-eyed, too clever by half, slightly sleazy.”