
By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – A political activist who ran for president three times before said the election of Donald Trump was a revolt of Main Street over Wall Street.
Ralph Nader said Trump won because of reaction against commercial interests taking over Washington.
“This is a revolt against unpatriotic corporations who rose to their profits on the back of American workers and now have abandoned them to despotic regimes overseas,” Nader said. “Who stoked that better in common language than Donald Trump.”
Nader said he doesn’t believe the candidacies of Gary Johnson and Jill Stein and the more than 5 million votes they received tipped the scales of the election as some suggested Nader did when George Bush beat Al Gore in 2000.
“That’s a lot more than 2008 and 2004 but it didn’t really have much decisive impact at all,” Nader said.
Nader said he didn’t think Trump ever expected to win, so he doubts he knows what to do now that he’s been elected.
“Donald Trump right now is probably one of the most scared people in America because he never thought he was going to win,” Nader said. “He thought was going to improve his brand, his business and maybe start a TV network, and now he doesn’t know what to do.”
Nader ran for president in 2000, 2004 and 2008. He’s now 82. Nader will be a guest on the Steve Fast Show on Sunday.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
Steve Fast contributed to this report.