Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy on Thursday praised House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as the “smartest person in Washington” and said President Donald Trump’s White House is not prepared to face the House’s impeachment inquiry.

Appearing on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Ruddy said he thinks “there are people around the president that believe this is going to be helpful for his re-election, or it will backfire on the Democrats.”

“I think that’s a very risky belief,” he said.

Ruddy, who often speaks to Trump and said he spoke to the president yesterday, said the impeachment inquiry “casts a huge shadow over the White House” and added that he is not sure “this White House is prepared for it.”

“It doesn’t have the communications staff or the response that’s going to be necessary for an impeachment ordeal,” Ruddy said, pointing out that Trump will have six different committees firing guns at him. “It’s not a good situation.”

Ruddy on Wednesday also told the Washington Post that Trump’s advisers who think impeachment will help Trump in 2020 are “nuts” because swing voters “don’t like controversy.”

“Are they nuts?” Ruddy reportedly asked. “People can’t underestimate the amount of bad advice he gets from people who are not strategic thinkers.”

Ruddy told NPR on Thursday that Trump is seeing “silver linings in dark clouds” because Trump has had 10,000 lawsuits against him in private business over his career. That, Ruddy said, enables Trump to have a “unique ability” to “quarantine in his mind” the impact that an impeachment inquiry could have.

“It does seem like he’s dismissing it or being dismissive of it. I’m not sure he completely understands the implications of the impeachment inquiry,” Ruddy said. “I think Nancy Pelosi is the smartest person in Washington right now, and I think she didn’t pull the trigger on this without knowing that she had more ammunition in her gun. And so, I think this is just the beginning.”

He insisted that the “can has been opened and now we have have to see if there is good soup inside or worms,” adding that Democrats, because of “expedited subpoena power,” will be digging for stuff that is “not going to be glowing or positive about the president.”