CLEVELAND, Ohio — Donald J. Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, tells Breitbart News exclusively he thinks what is happening in the United States is “bigger than” the Brexit in the United Kingdom.
“This is bigger than what happened in the U.K.,” Trump said. “This will be bigger than what happened in the U.K. What happened in the U.K. is peanuts compared to what’s happening in the United States.”
Trump was referring to the international populist nationalist movement of which he will officially become the worldwide leader when the Republican National Convention delegates vote for him to win the GOP presidential nomination here this week.
The Trump phenomenon—unlike any seen before in politics—will take the mantle of the global rejection of world elites by taxpayers around the world. It comes in the wake of several of the populist nationalist movement’s international victories, including the election of outsider presidents in Guatemala and Iceland and the United Kingdom’s highly impactful vote to “Leave” the European Union last month.
Populist nationalism is seeing a rise many other places worldwide, too, from Italy to France to Denmark and more, as globalism collapses.
Leave campaigners ran on many of the same issues as Trump is running on here, and specifically Nigel Farage of the U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) has for decades talked about the woes of world elites in charge of trade deals and immigration policies.
Farage will be here in Cleveland for the GOP convention. The U.K. vote to Leave caught many in the mainstream media, and throughout the political establishment, by surprise as many final polls showed “Remain” winning. But the populist phenomenon there is similar to what’s happening here.
World elites were shocked–and terrified–when British voters chose to reclaim their sovereignty from a distant failed global government in Brussels. Now, they are similarly shocked as Trump rises to the level of the nominee of one of America’s two major political parties.
Trump, despite millions being spent against him by the left in attack ads, is still in prime position to potentially win the election in November according to recent polling from several key battleground states. But what’s perhaps even more important than just winning the election is the consequences such a win would have on the United States–and the world–with regard to several key policy planks on issues Trump focuses in on.
Trump, in his interview with Breitbart News, recognized the responsibility he now holds as he climbs officially into the captain’s seat and takes the wheel of the movement on the world stage.
“I’m a messenger to a movement,” Trump says. “Many, many people—Bill O’Reilly said this is the greatest phenomenon he’s ever seen in politics. You know that, right? Matt, I had 4,000 people last night and I had 3,000 people standing outside. Obama had 1,500 people. I had 7,000 people. I had thousands standing outside. Look, this is a movement. I say I’m the messenger to the movement. I’m the messenger.”
A similar, but smaller and more easily crushed movement, emerged in the Democratic presidential primaries as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont nearly defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on that side. Sanders has now sold out to the special interest groups he railed against for over a year, and endorsed Clinton, but many of his supporters plan to fight on—and even some of them are now turning to Trump as the next leader of their “revolution.”
Trump wants them on board, and in this interview with Breitbart News made a specific point to reach out to them saying Sanders “got taken advantage of” and that he is right on trade on policy for his criticisms of the Clinton-backed NAFTA and Trans Pacific Partnership.
“Bernie Sanders got taken advantage of and I agree with Bernie Sanders on trade—that’s why so many of the people are there, the trade issue,” Trump told Breitbart News. “Hillary Clinton is going to sell our country down the tubes just like she sells everything else down the tubes. We’re going to get a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters.”
Trump will officially complete his hostile takeover of the Republican Party here this week, and may be able to ride this anti-establishment wave all the way into the White House.