Jesse Ventura has been friends with Donald Trump for the last 25 years, and he claims that "Donald Trump is not a dumb man," despite reports that say he and his campaign have gone off the rails. Ventura also is "glad to see" that Trump is destroying the Republican Party from the inside out.
In an op-ed from TIME magazine, the former Minnesota governor touted the successes he had forming the Reform Party in the 1990s, but blamed Pat Buchanan for its demise.
"Buchanan came in with these legions of people (who were backed by the Republican Party) and took over the Reform party, got the nomination and then didn’t even run," Ventura wrote. "Buchanan took the money we raised (at that point, we had quite a large national base thanks to Ross Perot and myself) and he used that money to retire his previous campaign debts."
Ventura makes the claim that Buchanan was a spy sent to destroy the Reform Party from the inside on behalf of the GOP.
"Well, Trump was there then. He saw it," Ventura wrote. "And I believe he’s doing the same thing to the Republicans that they did to us."
He then goes on to say that Melania Trump "pretty much recited Michelle Obama’s entire speech at the GOP convention" while Trump's daughter Ivanka "went on and on about the need for paid childcare, equal pay laws, and a bunch of liberal principles that we’ve never heard a Republican add to a presidential platform."
He admits, "I have to say, as an Independent, I’m glad to see it."
While Trump's most popular policy is about erecting a massive wall, Ventura says that it serves as a great contrast to the Republican Party's favorite president Ronald Reagan who's most famous quote is, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
"Do we want to live in East Berlin? No," Ventura wrote. "And Ronald Reagan would not support this; he probably wouldn’t even be considered for president in today’s Republican Party."
He also rejects any comparisons that have been made about him and the Trump campaign, clarifying that his policies are far more liberal and libertarian than that of Trump's campaign. He plans to "throw away" his vote on Libertarian Gary Johnson "because quite frankly he’s socially liberal and fiscally conservative and that’s what I believe in." He also hopes that Johnson will be allowed into the debates.
