FNC’s Hilton: Trump, Like Reagan, Thatcher ‘Brought About a Sea Change in the Intellectual Climate’

On Sunday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “The Next Revolution,” host Steve Hilton explained why President Donald Trump was a transformational candidate similar to former President Donald Trump and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

According to Hilton, Trump, like both Reagan and Thatcher, “shaped” policy on certain issues in a way that was unlike previous leaders.

Partial transcript as follows:

HILTON: Real power is when you change the way people think. You change the climate of opinion. You win the battle of ideas. That lasts way beyond the time you’re in office. In my lifetime, I can think of only three political leaders anywhere in the world who actually did that. One was Margaret Thatcher in England when I was growing up. Another was Ronald Reagan, of course, her great partner here in America. And the third is Donald Trump.

Now, I know that the snooty elites will be snorting in derision to hear this President being mentioned in the same breath as Reagan and Thatcher. But think about it. Those leaders changed how people think, and it shaped policy and politics, but decades after they left office. With the force of their will, they overturned the consensus of their day on the role of government, the size of the state, the importance of free markets, and that’s exactly what Donald Trump has done in his first term. He has overturned the establishment consensus on China, on endless war, and on trade and manufacturing. Before Trump, people said, we need to appease China. We need to be the world’s policeman. Globalism is the future, so there’s no point fighting it.

After Trump who thinks any Republican running for President in 2024, or ’28, or ’32, for that matter, would get anywhere on a platform that is pro-China that pushes foreign military engagement for some notion of America’s role in the world? That takes the side of global corporations on trade and immigration, instead of American workers? Forget about it. Trump has, in some cases pretty much single-handedly, given that you have the entire establishment against him, brought about a sea change in the intellectual climate. That is his lasting legacy and that’s the future after Trump.

The new conservative populism we talk about here: pro-business on tax and regulation, pro-worker on trade and immigration. Donald Trump has been understandably focused on the economy. He is a businessman after all. In 2016, the priority was jobs, and now because of the virus and the shutdowns, it is the priority in 2022. But in five years’ time, 10 years’ time, the next generation of conservative populace will have the chance to broaden the vision.

At the top of the show every week, we talk about being pro-worker, pro-family, pro-community and pro-America. President Trump’s conservative populism has certainly focused on the pro-worker and pro-America part. But smart thinkers in the conservative populist movement are looking ahead to the next revolution, stable families, strong communities, and more.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor