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Donald Trump's adviser tells GOP: You're no longer Ronald Reagan's party
UNDATED: (FILE PHOTO) Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan speaks at a rally for Senator Durenberger February 8, 1982. Reagan turns 92 on February 6, 2003. (Photo by Michael Evans/The White House/Getty Images)

Donald Trump's adviser tells GOP: You're no longer Ronald Reagan's party

Stephen Moore, a high-profile adviser to Donald Trump, told House GOP members they should no longer consider their party the party of Ronald Reagan, and instead accept they are now part of President-elect Donald Trump's "populist, working-class party," The Hill reports.

At the House GOP whip meeting where he was the guest of Majority Whip Steve Scalise, Moore shocked some of the lawmakers in attendance with his suggestion that the GOP is a fundamentally transformed party.

“For God’s sake, it’s Stephen Moore!” the source said, explaining some of the lawmakers’ reactions to Moore’s statement. “He’s the guy who started Club for Growth. He’s Mr. Supply Side economics.”

“I think it’s going to take them a little time to process what does this all mean,” the source added of the lawmakers. “The vast majority of them were on the wrong side. They didn’t think this was going to happen.”

Asked about his comments to the GOP lawmakers, Moore told The Hill he was giving them a dose of reality.

Moore, who is well-known as a supporter of free-trade and cuts to spending for most of his career, now says he's become a populist after traveling through the Rust Belt with the Trump campaign.

Trump has been vocal in past days about shifting away from the current, at least nominal, incarnation of free-trade, an agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He has also announced a huge infrastructure spending package that carries a huge public-spending price tag.

Moore, who says he does not agree with the infrastructure plan, says it doesn't matter if it's fiscally desirable.

“I don’t want to spend all that money on infrastructure,” Moore said. “I think it’s mostly a waste of money. But if the voters want it, they should get it.”

Moore says he believes Trump has a mandate from the American people and he should carry out the plans he proposes, even if those plans are more appealing to Democrats than traditional Republicans, because it is what the voters voted for.

The question of a mandate may play a role in Hillary Clinton supporters' recent push to challenge the electoral college results due to Clinton winning the popular vote.

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