I think he is. I don’t think he’s going to win, but if he did, I think he would not only be a disastrous President, but a danger to the country and to the world. I’ve worked with Republican candidates for years. I served with Governor Romney for ten years. I had major policy disagreements with Barack Obama, and I do with Hillary Clinton. But at the end of the day, they have a level of competence that wouldn’t ruin the country in a position of power.
I think Trump would destroy the country. I don’t think he has any respect for the rule of law, I don’t think he has any understanding of how our government works. I think he exhibits traits of a dictator, and he clearly is unstable. Whatever you think about Obama, and Clinton or any other Democrat, they’re stable human beings. I do not think Donald Trump is mentally stable.
I think he’s dangerous if he loses, too. There have been problems which have been festering for American politics for years – people having a distrust in government and elected leaders. But Trump has essentially exacerbated all those problems and torn the political process apart. It’s going to be very difficult, after the election, especially for the Republican party – my party – to put things together again.
I think the greatest potential threat of a Trump presidency is that he appears to be insane.
There has never been a candidate like Donald Trump. I know there have been comparisons to [1964 Republican nominee] Barry Goldwater. I would not rate Trump anywhere near a Barry Goldwater. Barry Goldwater was a good person, and a staunch conservative whose polices were far to the right of where the Republican party at the time. He took some very unpopular stances against the Civil Rights Act – a stance that I absolutely disagree with – but he did that from a principled position, not from one of personal bigotry. He lost badly, but he did lay the foundation for a candidate from his wing of the party to run several years later and win: Ronald Reagan.
If you were going to find someone to compare Trump to, it probably would be [1968 independent candidate and governor of Alabama] George Wallace. They both play to the lowest common denominator. They both play to angry, less educated, typically white voters who feel that the country is passing them by. Wallace did it obviously in a much more overtly racist way than Trump, though Trump obviously fires up racists with his rhetoric, as well.
We haven’t had a person seek the presidency of this country without any elected experience at all since Dwight Eisenhower – and he certainly had a great deal of leadership experience in a much more high-pressure setting than managing hotels.
I think the greatest potential threat of a Trump presidency is that he appears to be insane. You can cause a lot of problems if you’re an insane person in the Oval Office. We have some governors, and senators, who may not be the sharpest knives in the drawer, but a governor or a senator can’t ruin the world. That is not the case with the Presidency.