Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State under George W. Bush, doesn’t wear a MAGA hat. But Condi, unlike the Liz Cheneys and Paul Ryans of the GOP ruling class, actually “gets” Trump supporters. She even praised the former president in a new interview.

Appearing on the “Carlos Watson Show,” Rice told Watson that in 2016 Trump “touched the nerve of people who had felt left out.”

“He touched the nerve of people who felt left out by globalization, who felt diminished by elites.”

Not only that, but she also gave props to some of Trump’s policies.

“Some of the Trump policy was better than it sounded. There was an extraordinary ability to get people back to work who had not been working for years if you look at historic low unemployment rates before the pandemic. So, we shouldn’t just kind of try to toss this out because he was an unusual personality.”

That’s quite an about-face for Condi Rice. After all, in 2016 she called for Trump to drop out of the Presidential race in a rare Facebook post:

“Enough! Donald Trump should not be President. He should withdraw. As a Republican, I hope to support someone who has the dignity and stature to run for the highest office in the greatest democracy on earth.”

Trump then called her a “bitch” during a speech. . . .

“Condoleezza Rice, she’s a lovely woman, but I think she’s a bitch. . .”

. . . then later in the speech said he wished she was a bitch.

“I wish she was a bitch. I don’t care if she’s a lovely woman — I want somebody that can go and make deals.”

Well, okay. That was classic Trump-being-Trump. But instead of turning against Trump — à la The Lincoln Project — Condi Rice actually spoke with him in 2017. She found him to be “engaging” and “on top of his brief,” and said she “found him asking really good questions.” She also complimented him on his handling of North Korea and Syria via such diverse media outlets as Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, and the Washington Post.

That may not be enough for some of Trump’s more stalwart supporters, however. While many reveled in the way he insulted liberals through his Twitter account, she also called for him to stop tweeting.

But Condi Rice doesn’t want to ignore Trump’s supporters, or dismiss them as kooks, or hope and pray they leave the GOP. She doesn’t disdain them, like Reps. Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger, who continue to talk trash about the former president and thereby insult his supporters.

Rice sees that the Republican party is swinging populist, packed with millions of voters who felt disgust when President Joe Biden called the Capitol riots the “worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.” Or when he called white supremacy the “most lethal” threat to America. The vast majority of Trump voters didn’t storm the Capitol, nor were they white supremacists, yet Biden lumped them into a . . . what’s it called? A “basket of deplorables,” as someone once said.

Bing images.com.

Condi Rice also recognizes how conservative Republicans were livid at how the media pushed the Russia!Russia!Russia! lie. Or how CNN sucked up to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his equally sleaze ball journalist brother Chris. And how the Washington Post and other media, in their slavish devotion to the Democrats and mania to destroy Trump, called Sen. Tom Cotton a conspiracy kook when he posited that maybe Covid came from a lab leak in Wuhan. They’re quietly walking it back these days.

Now, to add further insult, former President Obama compared Trump voters to a man who murdered his wife and got away with it. Yes, really.

“Trump is for a lot of white people what O. J.’s acquittal was to a lot of black folks – you know it’s wrong, but it feels good.”

Condi Rice gets it. She may never be one to don a MAGA hat, and if Trump does run again in 2024, I don’t think she’ll stump for him. But even though she is certainly an intellectual and an elite, she knows that the Republican party is not just the party of Trumpism. It’s now the home of the working stiff, the common man, the people who feel trampled by Biden, the media, and progressives who wish to destroy their traditions. What’s more, she respects them, and she knows that their voices should be recognized and heard. That’s more than can be said for too many people of both parties in Washington, DC.

Featured image: George W. Bush Presidential Center/flickr/cropped/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.