Glenn Beck on NPR: Trump Is Not a Conservative

[UPDATE–Editor’s note: Now is not the only time Beck has accused a presidential candidate of being insufficiently conservative. In 2012, he said that former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was a “progressive,” and Republican voters–specifically, Tea Party members–who supported his candidacy over Barack Obama must have done so out of “racism.” ]

On Saturday, Glenn Beck went on left-leaning NPR and said he did not think Donald Trump is a conservative.

Beck acknowledged that he has a lot of listeners who believe he is wrong about Trump, but Beck insisted, “it’s hard to say you espouse conservative principals and small-government principals when you are saying that you think [the] Canadian health care system works and is wonderful.”

When asked if Trump, who is leading in every state and national poll, is “right or wrong on immigration,” Beck, who used the border crisis as an opportunity to bash conservatives, simply replied that he did not believe that Trump was “anti-immigrant or anti-Mexican or [anti] Hispanic in any way.”

When asked if Trump’s remarks about illegal immigrants would insult Hispanics, Beck, who is known for his clownish antics and has expressed regret for calling President Barack Obama a “racist,” replied by speaking about civility. He said, “this is saying something, coming from Glenn Beck, I think, for a lot of people who view Glenn Beck as the clown or the monkey on TV, but we have a real, serious issue with civility. As long as we’re civil, I think debate, vigorous debate, is good for everyone.”

As The Hill noted, Beck called Trump a “son of a bitch” before ridiculing Trump’s Fox News debate performance and said Trump is “the most arrogant candidate next to the candidate called Barack Obama.”

When NPR asked Beck if there was a sense of rivalry with Trump for the “mind and hearts of conservatives,” Beck snickered and said there was no rivalry.

Beck also acknowledged that Trump is resonating with voters because Trump “is not a politician.”

“He is saying the populist things right now,” Beck said. “I think what’s happening with Bernie Sanders with the left is the same thing that’s happening with Donald Trump, and that is… they want somebody just to say it the way they think it–especially if they say it in a non-politically correct way.”