Republican presidential candidates frequently mention Reagan on the campaign trail — but usually in a more reverent way. Trump is not one to lowball his popularity. He obsesses over poll numbers and has been known to slightly or dramatically inflate his crowd counts, even though he regularly sees audience sizes that none of his Republican rivals can match. Trump has said he expects historic numbers of voters to turn out because of him, just as the televised Republican debates have experienced historic viewership. And he plans to do well not only with working-class whites, who seem to be his base of support, but also with African Americans and Latinos, despite some of his controversial comments that have enraged activists.

"If you think about it, if you take a look at what I've done, I've brought millions and millions of people to the Republican Party, and to the conservative party, because, as an example, the debate had 24 million people. If I wasn't in the debate, would it have had three, or four, or two, or what would it have been?" Trump said in an interview with the Washington Examiner that was published earlier this week. "And you look at the kind of numbers that they're doing on television, where every one of the stations, the networks that are covering us, and honestly in particular covering me, because I do seem to get a lot more coverage than anybody else, but their ratings are through the roof. So that focus is a very important focus because other people are allowed to take advantage of all of the eyeballs that I'm bringing to the screen."