Scarborough: Don't Sell Trump Short — Reagan Succeeded

Real estate mogul/reality TV star Donald Trump has something in common with former President Ronald Reagan, MSNBC commentator Joe Scarborough writes on Politico. The establishment doesn’t take Trump seriously, just like it didn’t take Reagan as a genuine politician.

Joe Scarborough: Trump's not Reagan, but he'll shake up politics. (AP Photo)

“Throughout his remarkable political career, elites regularly treated former President Ronald Reagan as though he were a badly told political joke,” writes Scarborough, the host of “Morning Joe” and a former Republican congressman.

But Reagan was able to exploit that underestimation for political advantage, and Trump may be able to do the same, Scarborough writes in his weekly column on the website.

“Anyone who believes political commentators’ scorn for Trump will keep him from winning the Republican nomination need only read the nasty things Washington’s wise men said about Reagan in 1979,” Scarborough writes.

“That is not to say that Trump is Reagan. He is not. But . . . a run by the New York billionaire would shake up politics in a way not seen since Ross Perot sought the nation’s highest office in 1992.”