ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd left viewers confused Tuesday after he compared the rise of billionaire Donald Trump to the story of Zeus and the Titans of Greek mythology.
The moment came after ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Dowd to comment on Trump winning the Indiana Republican primary Tuesday, effectively handing him the party’s nomination.
“I think the fascinating thing about Donald Trump, George, as you and I have talked about, it’s almost as if this is, like, out of Greek mythology, right?” he said.
“The development of Donald Trump. Where the titans of the GOP establishment gave birth to Donald Trump through their actions and inactions and now the son of a titan has slain his father like Zeus and rules over Mount Olympus,” he added.
In response to Dowd’s drawn-out analogy, a media watchdog group, the Media Research Center, reacted with a simple, “Wait, what?”
Trump became the presumptive GOP nominee Tuesday evening after his last serious competitor, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, suspend his presidential campaign. On Wednesday morning, Ohio Gov. John Kasich suspended his campaign, removing the final barrier to Trump’s path to the party’s nomination.
Trump will likely face-off against Hillary Clinton in the general election, which means he’ll start “off at a serious disadvantage,” said Dowd. However, he added, “I don’t think we can understand Donald Trump’s ability in this sphere.”
“Well, Matthew Dowd is forcing me to pick up on his analogy, Jon Karl,” Stephanopoulos said, addressing his fellow ABC colleague. “He’s ruling on Mount Olympus, but a lot of the other gods on Mount Olympus, the Republican Party, are not there with him yet.”
“Yeah. I don’t know if Cleveland is Mount Olympus but I tell you this, George, many of the top Republican leaders over the years, governors, former governors including former presidential nominees for the Republicans like Mitt Romney will not be supporting Donald Trump. They probably will not even be going to the convention in Cleveland. Donald Trump is just turned the Republican Party upside down,” Karl said.
