Donald Trump Is To Ronald Reagan ‘Like Crack Is To Cocaine,’ Writer Says
In a Monday piece for The Intercept, writer Jon Schwarz pointed to Showtime’s recent four-part documentary series The Reagans to compare President Donald Trump to former head of state Ronald Reagan. Notably, the columnist argued that the pair are “essentially the same thing” outside of their differences.
“Trump is to Reagan much like crack is to cocaine: cheaper, faster-acting, and less glamorous. Still, in their essence, they are the same thing,” he wrote.
Schwarz pushed back against claims from historical records that suggest Reagan was a very popular president and noted that he had the sixth-highest average approval rating of the 13 presidents since World War II. Notably, one-term president George H.W. Bush and the impeached Bill Clinton both topped the former Hollywood star.
“What The Reagans does extremely well is discard these kinds of fantasies about Reagan, retrieve the basic facts about him, and try to put them back into history.”
The columnist continued to note that both Trump and Reagan were entertainers before going into politics, the pair each exaggerated their supposed strengths, and both used their fame to become “chintzy corporate pitchmen.”
“They were both able to use their fame to leapfrog over thousands of sweaty, striving competitors,” he added, pointing to the long political careers of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton that led to their respective presidencies.
Elsewhere, Schwartz highlighted numerous other similarities between Trump and Reagan. He noted they allegedly had a cruel streak, they both required glasses but avoided wearing them in public, both of them dyed their hair, and they relied on their inner circles to concoct “unusual machinations” to assuage the public amid their apparent lack of qualifications for the White House.
“Finally, both Reagan and Trump were underestimated at every turn by America’s sputtering Democrats,” he wrote.
In a piece for Vanity Fair in November, columnist Christopher Rosen also pointed to The Reagans to note the similarities between the two U.S. leaders. Rosen argued that the series reveals Trump and Reagan show many similar attributes and contended that there is a “direct connection” between the former’s rise and that of the latter. The writer also pointed out that both Trump and Reagan used the campaign slogan of “Make America Great Again,” which the former actor famously used in a 1980 speech before circulating it in television ads.
As The Inquisitr reported, progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez previously claimed that the two former presidents both used racism to distract from their alleged conning of the American public.
