Conservative Author Jeffrey Lord Explains His Support For Donald Trump
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Conservative author and commentator Jeffrey Lord expressed his support for Donald Trump, comparing him, at times, to Ronald Reagan and touting his crossover appeal and business acumen as reasons he will be formidable candidate for President.
Lord, during an interview with Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, rejected criticism that Trump is not conservative enough to represent today's Republican party.
"He's not a conservative in the sense that Ronald Reagan was. This is why I'm very careful to say that while I think he is very similar to Ronald Reagan in ways, he isn't Ronald Reagan. One of the things that I don't take particularly seriously is that they say he supported Democrats and all this sort of thing...Ronald Reagan went through that faze as well. I think that Donald Trump is a different kind of conservative. You can't, for example, build the Trump Organization, and I'm not talking about his political stuff, I'm talking about his business, which is called the Trump Organization, you can't do that without being a small 'c' conservative. You've got to have some common sense about you. Otherwise, the whole thing will go under."
He said Trump is tough enough to withstand the media attacks he'll receive and committed to following through with his agenda.
"Trump, like Ronald Reagan, has been around for decades. They know exactly who he is. I think that people are really responding because they really do believe that he's got the heft to withstand all the stuff that's going to come down on him and has been coming down on him. When Reagan was President and, for instance, wanted to put missiles in Europe, there were millions of people in the streets of New York and Paris and London and all this saying that he was a warmonger and he was going to kill us all and this kind of stuff. And he never relented. That's what you've got to have here, is somebody who's got that kind of spine, who is just willing to look these people in the eye and say, too bad."
Lord also expects Trump to find enough support among working class Democrats to pose a significant challenge to the Democratic nominee.
"I think that there are Trump Democrats out there. Working class folks right here in our own commonwealth of Pennsylvania, you think of sections of Philadelphia, you think of Western Pennsylvania who respond to Donald Trump's message. They can't stand political correctness, for one thing. They think this has just gotten, not only out of control, but is dangerous to Americans, whether they are abroad or whether they are here."