Former Hillary Clinton adviser Philippe Reines said President Donald Trump will remain impervious to political convention or punditry. “He is a freak of nature and it doesn’t matter if he’s dumb or not. It doesn’t matter what I think. He is a bulldozer.” | Carolyn Kaster/AP photo elections Clinton aide Philippe Reines predicts Trump will win a second term

A top adviser to former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said this week he’s not confident anyone in the 2020 Democratic field has a shot at blocking President Donald Trump from a second term.

During an interview for National Review reporter Jamie Weinstein’s podcast, Philippe Reines said that at this point he would bet on Trump being reelected in 2020.


He offered a back-handed compliment to the president, saying that Trump will remain impervious to political convention or punditry. “He is a freak of nature, and it doesn’t matter if he’s dumb or not. It doesn’t matter what I think. He is a bulldozer,” Reines said.

Reines said he thinks Trump would beat out what is sure to be a large field of Democrats “for a lot of reasons. Also because moments in history like this tend to not get resolved.”

“The only two presidents in the last 85 years that have been denied a second term: Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush. And both because they had, as a sign of trouble, they had serious primary challengers,” he continued.

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Asked which Democrat he thinks has the best shot at beating their party's opponents in a primary as well as the president, Reines responded: “I don’t know.”

"I think there are people out there who would make great presidents; I just don't know how you would get through both" the Democratic primary and the general election, he said, adding that the two are a "different dynamic" of campaign.

“I always think of it this way, that if the election were held tomorrow, stick in a name, would Trump win,” Reines said, throwing in the names of a few celebrities. “I have a hard time thinking of ... I think Tom Hanks would win, I think The Rock would win. I have a hard time seeing how a lot of the people who are running would win. Just as comparison.”

Reines, however, argued to POLITICO last month that his former boss should not be completely written off as a viable 2020 candidate, adding that there’s a “not zero” chance of Clinton making a third run at the White House. He later told The Hill that Clinton was “more likely to win the Powerball” than run again.