‘He Is the Swamp:’ Former RNC Comms Director Says Trump Has Become ‘Everything He Said He Wasn’t Going To Be’

Former Republican National Committee communications director Douglas Heye told CNN Monday former President Donald Trump epitomizes everything he vowed to fight when he was elected in 2016.

Heye, a veteran GOP political strategist, went as far as to designate the former president “the swamp.”

He joined CNN Newsroom with Victor Blackwell and Alisyn Camerota to discuss the current state of the Republican Party.

Blackwell questioned Heye whether Trump is now the party’s establishment, given he was the last elected Republican president, and his endorsements matter to many voters.

“We talk about narratives of Trump vs. the establishment of the GOP,” Blackwell noted, before he asked, “Is Trump the establishment of the GOP? He’s the former president, a front runner likely for the nomination in 2024.”

Blackwell noted if Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) loses her Tuesday primary, then eight of 10 Republicans in the House who voted to impeach Trump last year will have been ousted by voters.

Heye agreed Trump has become the party’s establishment, and said Republican voters should be cautious about embracing him. He also issued a warning to elected Republicans who get close to the former president:

Donald Trump is everything he said he wasn’t going to be. He is the establishment now. He is the swamp. It’s all of these things. I’ll tell you, I texted last week with one of the members who went up to visit Donald Trump last week after we found out the revelations about the FBI visit.

I said be very careful here for your own political purposes, but also, you know, more broadly, be careful because we know two things about Donald Trump. One is when there’s a revelation, two or three days later we find out, gosh, it’s worse than we thought it was, and the other is politically Donald Trump doesn’t give points, he only takes them away one at a time. If you stood with Donald Trump on Tuesday, you better have been with him on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, because any cracks in that, you’ll be his next target.

Watch above, via CNN.

Have a tip for us? tips@mediaite.com