| Piers Morgan, ‘He has many skills that could help America… but it’s not going to be an easy ride’ |
PIERS MORGAN: ON PRESIDENT TRUMP
Following earlier news that Donald Trump is elected President of the US, This Morning’s Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby spoke exclusively to GMB’s Piers Morgan live in New York.
On the Trump victory, Piers said,
“It’s been a remarkable night. The evening started with Hillary Clinton way ahead and then suddenly, everything changed, and Trump began to surge in many many crucial swing states. The atmosphere here was electric… you couldn’t get more contrasting moods today.”
He added,
“I interviewed him in late May, he believed that it would be very much like the Brexit campaign in Britain. He believed there’d be millions of Americans who simply weren’t showing up in the polls who were going to be energised by his campaign. And he was right. Brits can get all high and mighty about it as many did over Brexit, but in the end the people have spoken. The majority has got to be respected. I wouldn’t have personally voted for Trump, I’ve known him a very long time and I have been telling people in Britain do not underestimate this guy, do not bet against Trump. I was in Florida last week and the Trump train was surging last week, so he clearly has resonated with millions of Americans and now his challenge is to bring America together.”
When asked if he thinks Americans will be disappointed, Piers said,
“Look, he’s a skillful businessman, and I would say don’t get too wound up by individual things that he’s saying, because everything is negotiable. He’s not a politician with an ideology. He’s only been a politician for sixteen months. He’s a businessman who likes to close deals. He believes America is in a bad place and 70% of Americans in the polls agree with him and he has many skills that could help America. I think Trump the negotiator could be very effective.”
Although added,
“I think there are areas that would concern me - I don’t like the fact that Trump has no view about gun control, other than to continue as they are - I think that’s wrong and we’ve argued about it. He doesn’t believe in climate change, that’s a problem. So it’s not going to be an easy ride. But I was very encouraged by his speech today where he was really trying to unify people. ‘If people around the world are fair to me, I will be fair to them.’”
Likening it to Brexit, Piers admitted,
“In a way the Brexit victory is very similar to Trump, I voted for ‘remain’ so I was on the other side, but I didn’t like the way that anyone who attached themselves to the Brexit campaign was immediately dismissed as stupid, ignorant, sexist, racist, whatever… and exactly the same here with Trump. And the more Hillary, Obama and the democrats tried to demonise Trump, the more I felt, and I said this very publicly, the more I felt it played into his hands and energised his core vote.”
He added,
“Can Trump be different? Absolutely. Why? Because he’s not just a high and mighty politician who has very strong views about things, he’s a negotiator, he’s a guy who we’ve already seen in the last few weeks, reined himself back in, changed his policy on things like his absurd short term ban on Muslims coming in the country, now he’s saying he wants tougher immigration controls on people coming from war torn countries, which makes perfect sense. So Trump is already showing signs to me, that he’s actually more moderate than people fear… I wouldn’t be overly terrified as many Brits seems to be.”
For more information, on Piers Morgan on ITV's This Morning please visit: www.itv.com/thismorning.