A former adviser to Hillary Clinton praised Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump as “the Uber of politics” Tuesday, and warned Clinton’s campaign of underestimating the billionaire’s appeal.
Mike Berland, who worked on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and now serves as CEO of Edelman Berland, said Tuesday morning on Fox Business that from a marketing standpoint, Trump looks like the booming ridesharing service, Uber.
“He is the Uber of politics. He is a disruptive force that is going in, targeting his customers, his voters, very well,” Berland told “Mornings with Maria” anchor Maria Bartiromo.
“For whatever crazy reason, Hillary Clinton wants to take on Donald Trump. I’ve talked to the Hillary people, it is Hillary’s dream scenario. And I’m like, ‘What’re you talking about?'” he added.
Berland continued, “Hillary wants to take him on because she thinks he’s so beatable, and he just might not be.”
“This election is not going to be about Democrats voting for Democrats and Republicans voting for Republicans. There is a group of independent voters, who are the swing voters, who are going to make up this election,” Berland explained.
“When you are an independent looking at Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump — and independent voters [vote on] economic issues, who’s going to grow the economy, who has a vision for the future — I’m telling you, Donald Trump is going to begin to look very attractive,” he said.
“All the political class kept saying Donald Trump’s done,” Berland went on, referring to previous speculations that Trump’s campaign would go south following some of his earlier gaffes. “Again, think Uber — disruptive force, that’s not quite taken seriously, that all of a sudden changes the whole market.”
A new Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,000 likely voters found Trump leading Clinton 38-36 percent in a hypothetical general election matchup. In the same poll released Tuesday, 24 percent of GOP voters indicated they would prefer to see a different Republican candidate compete with Clinton in the general election.
