Conservative Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan said Friday that attempts to compare Donald Trump to President Reagan are coming off as “desperate.”
“Trump supporters should be able to make an affirmative case for their candidate without diminishing Reagan or anyone else,” she wrote. “You shouldn’t cut down a man you know was great to make him fit your candidate’s size. It is poor political etiquette. It’s also historical parallelism gone mad. Mr. Trump isn’t Reagan, and he isn’t Andrew Jackson either. He’s Mr. Trump. Take him on his terms and make the case.”
Trump is often favorably compared to Reagan by his supporters who note that both worked in the entertainment business and were disdained by elitists. But while Reagan had government experience — he was governor of California — Trump has none. And while Reagan evolved from a Democrat into one of the most celebrated Republicans in history, Trump has flipped his registered political affiliation several times.
“You can begin a case, an argument …,” said Noonan. “But you can’t say that Mr. Trump is Ronald Reagan, because he is not, and you sound desperate and historically illiterate when you insist he is.”
