Watch Ex-Reagan Staffer Discuss What His Boss Would Have Thought About Trump
A former top White House staff member to President Ronald Reagan believes the 40th president would be a “solid supporter” of President Donald Trump, and the case is compelling.
James Rosebush served as deputy assistant to the Gipper, as well as chief of staff to former first lady Nancy Reagan in the 1980s.
Among his other tasks was being a member of Reagan’s “Theme for the Day” communications team, which the White House employed to get its message out to the public through the news media.
Rosebush told The Daily Caller he is often asked what Reagan would think of Trump.
“I think that he would be a solid supporter of Trump,” the former White House aide said.
“Trump is taking the Reagan conservative platform to the next degree, and he’s accomplishing things that Reagan, I believe, would have wanted to accomplish but didn’t have enough time and didn’t have enough ability in terms of his staff … to get all the things done that Trump is doing,” Rosebush added.
Reagan never had a unified Congress during his entire eight years in office.
Further, the GOP held just a narrow majority in the Senate during his first six years — with some definite centrist, read RINO, Republicans among them — while the Democrats controlled the House for Reagan’s entire time in office.
Trump, at least, enjoyed Republican control of both chambers during his first two years in office.
“We’re living now in a vastly different time. We have a much more aggressive opposition on the left,” Rosebush said.
Gary Bauer, Reagan’s chief White House domestic policy adviser, made a similar assessment in an interview with The Western Journal last summer.
“I think some of the people today you hear say, ‘Oh I wish we had Ronald Reagan again instead of Donald Trump,’ are in denial about the nature of the time we live in,” Bauer said.
“Ronald Reagan was exactly the right kind of conservative candidate in the 1980s,” he said.
“Ronald Reagan, in my view, would not be able to win in America today, because his demeanor was so kind and gentle. But we’re living in an era when the left is willing to destroy people that stand up against them in ways that in the ’80s, those of us in the Reagan administration couldn’t begin to imagine.
“And it takes somebody like a President Trump to be able to fight back and prevail against that kind of pressure.”
Bauer pointed out that Reagan and Trump talk about the United States in very similar terms, focusing on the nation’s greatness.
In fact, the former California governor used the phrase “Make America Great Again” in his presidential nomination acceptance speech at the 1980 Republican National Convention.
“For those who’ve abandoned hope, we’ll restore hope and we’ll welcome them into a great national crusade to make America great again,” Reagan said.
Rosebush observed that his former boss “loved America so much” and that “Donald Trump loves America certainly as much as Ronald Reagan ever did.”
Trump has advanced the conservative agenda the most of any Republican president since Reagan, and he has done it with the Democrats and the media’s constant drumbeat of impeachment.
The 45th president has followed the Reagan policy playbook from cutting individual and business taxes, to slashing regulations at an unprecedented rate, to the appointment of conservative judges.
Photo from the 1980s: President Ronald Reagan shakes hands with real estate developer Donald Trump at a Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies reception in 1987. Happy Birthday @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/bdHHIIbREr
— Wallace Lang (@WallaceWalang) June 14, 2019
Trump has even adopted Reagan’s “Peace through strength” philosophy in relation to the military and has taken a firm stand against communist China’s aggression, much like the 40th president did toward the Soviet Union.
In both cases, taking a strong position did not mean being unwilling to negotiate with their foes.
Many pro-life advocates — including the Rev. Franklin Graham and Family Research Council president Tony Perkins — have called Trump the most pro-life president in their lifetimes.
He enjoys a record-high approval rating among Republicans at 93 percent, according to Gallup.
There is little doubt, though the two men have different styles, Ronald Reagan would be a solid supporter of Donald Trump.
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