During the latest edition of The Hill’s Rising , conservative commentator Saagar Enjeti issued a dire warning to President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
According to Enjeti, if Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders wins the Democratic nomination, Trump could very well lose the 2020 presidential election.
Pointing to a recent Pew Research Center survey — which found that nearly half of lower income Republican voters believe the current economy is hurting them — Enjeti suggested that Trump would not be able to match Sanders’ economic populism in 2020, given that his economic policies appear to have helped the wealthiest Americans, doing next to nothing for the middle and working class.
The latest Pew survey, Enjeti said, is a “huge warning sign for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the elites within the Republican Party who have made it clear that they’re going to run the 2020 presidential campaign on the strength of the economy.”
“Trump and the Republicans would do very well to … quickly shift tactics or face the very real possibility of losing the 2020 presidential election, especially against a populist candidate like Bernie Sanders.”
The commentator — who worked as White House correspondent for Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller and now co-hosts Rising with Krystal Ball — also pointed to numerous analyses and reports which suggest that Trump’s economic policies, his tax cuts in particular, helped only the wealthiest Americans and mega-corporations.
For instance, Enjeti noted, analyses show that Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 benefited Fortune 500 companies, 91 of which paid no federal taxes in 2018.
Staunchly opposed to Trump’s tax cuts, Sanders has centered much of his platform on issues of income and wealth inequality, vowing to make the wealthiest Americans and corporations pay their “fair share” of taxes.
Sanders, Enjeti concluded, could be Trump’s “toughest opponent.”
Polls suggest that Sanders is the second best-positioned candidate to win the Democratic nomination, trailing only former Vice President Joe Biden nationally. Sanders is ahead of Biden in two key early states, Iowa and New Hampshire, and continues to surge in polls, having surpassed Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren .
Even Democratic insiders are starting to acknowledge Sanders’ chances, with former President Barack Obama’s adviser Dan Pfeiffer recently noting that the Vermont senator “has a very good shot of winning Iowa, a very good shot of winning New Hampshire, and other than Joe Biden, the best shot of winning Nevada.”
According to reports, Sanders is facing strong opposition from the Democratic Party establishment. Even Obama would reportedly be willing to intervene in the primary race if Sanders comes close to winning the nomination.