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Embrace Of Anti-Intellectualism Set The Stage For Donald Trump, Former GOP Adviser Says

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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at the Ocean Center Convention Center on Aug. 3, 2016 in Daytona, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at the Ocean Center Convention Center on Aug. 3, 2016 in Daytona, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

It's been a tough week for Donald Trump.

Or, maybe more accurately, it's been a tough week for Republicans who have formed uneasy alliances with Trump, hoping he'd temper his message once he became the party's nominee.

Instead, he's feuded with the parents of a Muslim soldier killed serving in Iraq, and declined to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator John McCain, prompting rumblings of an intervention from some in the GOP establishment.

But the Republican Party has mostly itself to blame for Trump's rise, at least according to Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a former foreign policy adviser to several Republican presidential campaigns.

Here & Now's Eric Westervelt talks with Boot about how the party's long-time embrace of anti-intellectualism set the stage for Trump.

Guest

Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a former foreign policy adviser to John McCain, Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio's presidential campaigns. He tweets @MaxBoot.

This segment aired on August 5, 2016.

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