While "
Make America Great Again" is now solidly associated with Trump and his MAGA-hat wearing supporters, Kengor reminded readers that the phrase actually began with President Reagan.
"Quite interestingly, in 1980, when Reagan ran against Jimmy Carter, he used a message that is very much Donald Trump's right now, which is, 'Are you better off now than you were four years ago?'" Kengor told
Fox News Digital. "And, you know, that has been a Trump theme and also the Trump phrase, ‘Make America Great Again.’ That was Reagan's. That was Reagan's 1980 campaign message."
THE ONE CHARACTERISTIC OF REAGAN AND TRUMP THAT SETS THEM APART FROM OTHER PRESIDENTS
Reagan was known for his strong conservative principles. And while the Gipper was the leader of a now bygone era, Kengor said his tenets are still very much a part of the current Republican platform, maintaining that Trump checks the boxes.
"I wrote a book called '11 Principles of a Reagan Conservative,' which is jointly published with Young America's Foundation and the Reagan Ranch Center," he said. "And it lists kind of the 11 key Reagan areas: faith, freedom, family, sanctity, dignity of human life, limited government, lower taxes, peace through strength, anti-communism."
"Trump can pretty much check the box on all 11 of those Reagan principles or ideas," Kengor continued. "So even though the times are very different, conservatism believes that conservatism is based on time-tested ideas and principles. So kind of regardless of where you are in a particular time or campaign, those principles ought to be shared by conservatives if they're genuinely conservatives. So the ideas of Reagan's time should transfer forward to conservatives today in 2024 and beyond."