Columnist and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan said that Donald Trump is “riding” the “tremendous” issue of immigration and “making a lot of the other Republicans look like they’re real wimps” on Friday’s “McLaughlin Group.”

Buchanan, while he said Trump wouldn’t win the nomination, argued, “Look, what he has done — what he said was politically incorrect, no doubt about it. But what he has done is elevated this issue that is deeply concerning to tens of millions of Americans who’s dealing with the border, and all of a sudden, this character out there in San Francisco comes in, you know, a guy that’s apparently been let go a number of times, and the whole issue of sanctuary cities has been raised. And what Trump is doing, he is riding this issue into the Republican primaries where it is a tremendous issue, can garner him 15, 20 percent of the vote, that he’s got now. He’s running first. And what he’s doing is making a lot of the other Republicans look like they’re real wimps on the issue. And there’s no doubt it, John. Whatever you say about him, these other guys are people of words and he is a man of action.”

Buchanan later added, “When I ran against George Bush Sr. in 1992, and we did very well in New Hampshire, and then we went on to California, it was four, five months later, I got 30 percent in the counties in Southern California, because Californians wanted us to do something, Mort, about thousands of people walking into our country on weekends, and the president of the United States and the government of the United States, unlike General Eisenhower, who dealt with it, did nothing. And that’s what Trump is riding.” And “The problem is, you say, serious immigration reform, what have they done in the 25 years since we’ve raised it. Nothing, nobody believes the politicians. They think they’re all talkers, and he’s got a point there.”

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