Thursday on MSNBC’s “Deadline,” campaign strategist for former President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) Steve Schmidt said, “40 percent of the country has surrendered their intellectual sovereignty to Donald Trump.”

Schmidt said, “He’s pursuing the only strategy he can pursue, which is try to incite his base. As he incites that base, that base gets smaller, and the majority grows in opposition to Trump, but the smaller base is a harder more intense one. If you go back to inauguration day, Trump has less support today than he did then. His base is smaller. The Republican party is smaller. But it is more faithful and more intense in its loyalty to Trump. Forty percent of the country has surrendered their intellectual sovereignty to Donald Trump.”

He added, “There is for them no such thing as objective truth anymore. What is true is what the leader says is true, what the leader believes is true. Trump has exercised that power and 40 percent of the country has submitted themselves to it. It’s extraordinary and frightening to see, but thank goodness not a majority of the country. In fact, it’s not even close to being a majority of the country.”

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