Campaign

GOP strategist: Trump has ‘a lot of Democrat’ in him

by Rebecca Savransky - 12/12/16 8:37 AM ET

President-elect Donald Trump has “a lot of Democrat” in him, GOP strategist Alex Castellanos said.

{mosads}Castellanos, who worked for a pro-Trump super PAC, predicted the president-elect would be unpredictable at times and cautioned people against taking him too literally.

“He’s a dealmaker. He always starts somewhere beyond where he hopes to end up. So, yes, by definition, he’s going too far,” Castellanos told David Axelrod on “The Axe Files” podcast, produced by the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN.

He referenced the president-elect’s positions on free trade, NATO and immigration.

“I think in many ways Donald Trump is a corporatist,” Castellanos said.

“He’s a CEO — not, in many ways, unlike Mitt Romney.”

He admitted a lot of people are concerned that the “disruption” the president-elect might bring to the White House “would be too large and would be, perhaps, frightening and uncertain.”

“The institutions of government have so much mass and inertia, there’s so much poured cement, that I think his challenge will be to be as transformational as the country needs,” Castellanos said.

“I think bringing enough change is going to be the problem, ultimately.”

Castellanos also warned that the Republican Party still has work to do, even with the election of Trump.

“Our Republican Party was in such (terrible) shape that an outsider who’d never been part of it came in and mowed down sixteen of our best and brightest,” Castellanos said.

“That’s how hollow we were and how little value we provided. So, we still haven’t fixed that problem.”

Tags Donald Trump