Billy Bragg Quotes

I think the establishment donor class has begun to crumble. They're searching for [Marco] Rubio, trying to get some momentum there. But the establishment in terms of the official elected leadership of the Republican Party, when you look at [Kevin] McCarthy, they're starting to wrap theirselves around the idea of [Donald] Trump, holding back on an endorsement.

I think Donald Trump and Jeb Bush are the frontrunners. It's kind of like the race between the tortoise and the bad hair.

If you think about conservative ideas, conservative principles, the fact that Donald Trump goes back at George W. Bush over weapons of mass destruction or gets into fights with the pope, and there's no outreach in terms of growth of the party. I think lots of people fear for the future of the party.

Donald Trump has pulled something off that I have never seen pulled off. And it is, I think, at the root of the frustration that Republican consultants and the Republican establishment and anybody else in the Republican Party has that is anti-Trump, and that is: Donald Trump owns the media.

Republicans woke up Sunday with an undeniable reality. Donald Trump's the clear front-runner now for their party's nomination. Trump, celebrated, of course, his big win in South Carolina.

The great unknown in this country is where this leaves the Republican Party after this election. Will it be the party of the Kochs or will it be the party of [Donald] Trump?

I don't think Trump's a conservative, I'm certainly not going to support him.

Under Donald Trump, you know, we've seen the foundation of the Republican Party move into the Democratic Party, so Donald Trump, I think, will have a lot of trouble moving things through Congress.

If we have a Democratic Senate I think the Republican Party will wake up to the reality that their opposition to comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship is a losing proposition. That Donald Trump's inflammatory rhetoric and derogatory comments do not really work in a national election. And I think we'll have a better chance to actually get something done.

I really believe that Donald Trump is so polarizing even within the Republican Party that he will fail to have a majority if he is, in fact, our nominee. I think he will be shredded by the Democrats based on the opposition research that's there.

I don't think the Republican Party, or I should say the Republican Party as the vehicle for modern American conservative ideas, survives with Donald Trump.

Think of the Republican Party as the opposition to the Democrats. It doesn't exist in California!

If Donald Trump loses badly, it could mean the end of the GOP as one of the two significant parties.

A lot of unpredictable things happened in the Republican party, but I think the notion that we're gonna demonize Donald Trump or we're gonna mischaracterize him is completely unfair.

I'm convinced Mr. Reagan would never be elected- I don't think his views are held by a majority of the American people...it's the Republican party that's going to be committing suicide by nominating candidates of that genre.

We have a ways to go here, but elections have consequences ... I think that our Republican colleagues, the Republican National Party, understands this is our new demographic in America as a result of the election. I think they understand if they want to be a national party, they're going to have to deal with this issue. For Latinos and other immigrants, this is the civil rights issue of our time.

Donald Trump has - he's endorsed Kelly Ayotte. He endorsed Paul Ryan. He endorsed John McCain. He's been incredibly gracious. I think he's done his part to unify the party by becoming president for nominee fairly and squarely.

If you're conservative, if you're Republican, I dare say that if you're over 50, you didn't think - you never thought - that what happened last November would be possible. You wouldn't think a Republican, I don't care who it is, could win the White House and that we would control the House and the Senate at the same time and have the Democrats' 2018 prospects be in the tank, which they are.

I think Donald Trump's reaching out and supporting John McCain and Kelly Ayotte in particular, and Paul Ryan, who had been critical of him, you know, a couple of days earlier, shows that he has the ability and the understanding to realize that there are going to be disagreements and you've got to be able to reach out to the entire party.

At the same time, you had Barack Obama as a president. You had Hillary Clinton on track, all the Democrats looking good. And, you know, Donald Trump was just an entertaining buffoon to watch. And, over time, you came to realize that Donald Trump was appealing to a lot of people with his populist message. And, slowly, I think, even as a show, we started shifting in tone as the election started shifting.

I think Donald Trump is a pragmatic sort of populist and who tell people anything in any moment that he wants them to hear, if he thinks that it's going to be to his advantage, that everything is going to reset in the general election, assuming that he is the nominee, and I think it will be interesting to watch how many people feel betrayed or conned with the game he played with the Republican Party at this point.

The Republicans don't want Donald Trump to define the Republican Party agenda. They are very loyal. They owe a lot to their donors. The donors hate Trump. The Chamber of Commerce hates Trump. All of these people that the Republicans think they can't get elected without don't like Trump. So it has been a stonewall. This behavior by the House and Senate Republican leadership isn't anything new. All you had to do was to listen what they were saying during the campaign.

Interestingly enough, if you search Twitter, you'd see I have been saying this for 3-plus years now. I cannot believe we are now in this position that Donald Trump is the Republican nominee for President. That he is in this position.

Republicans think that [Ted] Cruz would be like Barry Goldwater. He'd lose in a landslide and pull the party down with him. They'd lose Senate and House seats.

Donald Trump has the benefit of the fact that he's dominated media coverage, I mean, literally dominated media coverage because of the outrageous things he says and so forth. That's going to end here. There's going to be real fight now for the heart and soul of the Republican Party and the conservative movement. And it is not - I will do whatever it takes to prevent it from being taken over by a con artist.