Trump spokesperson predicts clean sweep of Iowa, NH and SC

In preparation for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s visit to Pensacola, I interviewed his national spokesperson, Katrina Pierson, on “Pensacola Speaks.”

As expected, she was enthusiastic about how well her candidate is doing the once-crowded GOP field. Pierson said that currently Sen. Ted Cruz is in a distant second and all the other Republican candidates are fighting over third place.

“I think we’re going to make history this time, and I think Donald Trump’s going to win Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina,” said Pierson. “I think it’s going to be a clean sweep, it’s going to send a very bold message to the establishment on both sides of aisle in this country, and for the first time in a long time the people are going to start.”

Pierson volunteered on Ted Cruz’s 2012 U.S. Senate campaign, but she chose to work on Trump’s campaign rather than for her fellow Texan.

“I’m someone who looks at candidates individually, and look at their policies,” she said. “One of my main policies being here in Texas is illegal immigration. Mr. Trump by far has the strongest position on legal immigration.”

She liked Trump’s independence. “He is not beholden to any donors that would prevent him from doing these things, like we’ve seen many republicans in the past who have the big donors in groceries, or big donors in oil,…by any of that, so it was a matter of importance, because I do believe we have got to fix the economy, and we’ve got to get immigration under control, or none of the other issues matter.”

Repeatedly the political pundits have said Trump’s campaign has peaked. Each time they’ve been proven wrong. What is Trump’s “special sauce”?

“I think it’s more about the people, to be honest with you,” said Pierson. “We’ve had this paradigm shift since Bush bailed out the banks, and then Barack Obama came in and bailed out everything else. We have this shift in the minds of people who realize that the pundits are all in somebody else’s tank, the media is in the liberal tank, and really nobody’s looking out for them.”

She added, “The people have seen in Donald Trump someone that they feel like they know, because he has been out there for quite a few decades now. People understand that he says what he means and he means what he says, and so the traditional thing that would hurt a regular politicians campaign, they don’t hurt Donald Trump.”

Trump’s speeches appear to be completely off-the-cuff, without notes. She said that his campaign team makes suggestions, but “at the end of the day, Mr. Trump really has a handle on what’s wrong with this country.”

Pierson said, “He knows what he wants to talk about, and if things come up that are happening in the news he’ll talk about that too, but at the end of the day, he’s all about bringing jobs back, fixing taxes, getting rid of the corruption at the top and making America great again.”

She said that Trump’s appeal has broadened, even Democrats have reached out to the campaign.

“I have Bernie Sanders supporters emailing me saying that if Bernie doesn’t win the primary they’re supporting Trump because they agree with his immigration policy, so we’re getting support from across the board,” she said. “Really what it is, if you have someone like Donald Trump who’s very experienced, more seasoned, and staunch businessman, and that’s why he’s appealing to a lot of the moderates out there. A lot of the moderates don’t really want someone young and inexperienced in the office, and I understand that, because the problems that we face are very vast today than they were even eight years ago.”

She said Trump has successfully plugged into the American culture.

“I think that’s why he has a lot of appeal is because he does have that experience, seasoned outlook, the will and the know-how to get things done, but then he also has this ability to tap into the culture, and that’s where we see a lot of the young people get engaged and a lot of the Millennials get engaged,” said Pierson. “I’ve never seen young women with pink streaked hair at a Republican primary event in my life, and it’s just been fascinating.”