--- title: Donald Trump Says His Political Movement Bigger Than Reagan description: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump compared his own political movement to former President Reagan. canonical: https://time.com/4180918/donald-trump-ronald-reagan-political-movement/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-14T17:16:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:08:30.451Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Says His Political Movement Bigger Than Reagan og:description: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump compared his own political movement to former President Reagan. og:url: https://time.com/4180918/donald-trump-ronald-reagan-political-movement/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2fad4d8e17abf3e2/6988792d0b72e38c1c6e7abc/donald-trump-campaign-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Campaigns In Cedar Falls, Iowa og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Says His Political Movement Bigger Than Reagan twitter:description: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump compared his own political movement to former President Reagan. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2fad4d8e17abf3e2/6988792d0b72e38c1c6e7abc/donald-trump-campaign-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Says His Political Movement Is Even Huger Than Reagan's > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jan 14, 2016 5:16 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets people during a campaign event at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa on Jan. 12, 2016. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets people during a campaign event at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa on Jan. 12, 2016. Joe Raedle—Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jan 14, 2016 5:16 PM UTC Republican presidential candidate [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4178881/donald-trump-campaign-speeches/) [compared his campaign](http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-01-14/donald-trump-says-his-political-movement-is-bigger-than-reagan-s) to that of former President Ronald Reagan in a recent interview, giving his own movement even higher marks. When asked what historical political movement he thought his own campaign was most similar on Bloomberg’s _With All Due Respect_ show, Trump mentioned Reagan. “Now, Reagan had a little bit of this, but I don’t think to the same extent—but he also won,” Trump said. Trump mentioned several times that winning is the ultimate goal for him, but added, “I think that the closest thing I can think of is Reagan, but I don’t think it’s the intensity that we have.” **_Read more:_** [_How to Watch Tonight’s Republican Debate Online_](http://time.com/4179420/republican-debate-watch-live-stream-online-free/) Trump also responded to critics who believe that the large crowds he brings won’t actually go out to vote. “Why would a person stand in line for seven hours and then not want to go into a voting booth?” he asked. \[[_Bloomberg_](http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-01-14/donald-trump-says-his-political-movement-is-bigger-than-reagan-s)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4180918/donald-trump-ronald-reagan-political-movement/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4180918/donald-trump-ronald-reagan-political-movement/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Says His Political Movement Is Even Huger Than Reagan's","datePublished":"2016-01-14T17:16:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:08:30.451Z","description":"He says Reagan's movement did not have the same intensity as his","url":"https://time.com/4180918/donald-trump-ronald-reagan-political-movement/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Reagan"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2fad4d8e17abf3e2/6988792d0b72e38c1c6e7abc/donald-trump-campaign-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2fad4d8e17abf3e2/6988792d0b72e38c1c6e7abc/donald-trump-campaign-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Campaigns In Cedar Falls, Iowa","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets people during a campaign event at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa on Jan. 12, 2016.","creditText":"Joe Raedle—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4180918/donald-trump-ronald-reagan-political-movement/","name":"Donald Trump Says His Political Movement Is Even Huger Than Reagan's"}}]}] ```