Trump on National Review: Ronald Reagan Wasn’t ‘Overly Conservative,’ Either

TODD: "Let me ask you about National Review, I've seen your tweets, I know how you feel about the magazine and how you feel about this issue. But let me get you to respond to one quote from Erick Erickson. He writes this, 'Like the angels in heaven who rejoice for every new believer, we should rejoice for Donald Trump's conversion to conservatism, but we should not put a new conservative in charge of conservatism or the country.' What do you tell conservatives that will make them believe you won't leave the ideology if it's convenient or unpopular?"
TRUMP: "Well, first of all, that's not an insulting quote. It really isn't. I was going to hit him hard. But it wasn't an insulting quote. Second of all, The National Review is a failing magazine and you get that. They did it because they'll get nice publicity. I am a conservative. What I say to people is this, Ronald Reagan; he was a somewhat liberal Democrat and over the years he evolved and became a fairly conservative -- not overly -- but fairly conservative Republican. Now, he became a great president also. And I've evolved, and a lot of people changed positions on things over the years. And by the way, Ted Cruz has changed his position. He was a very, very -- he was very weak on illegal immigration. He was very, very weak on illegal immigration. And now all of a sudden, because of my stance, he got strong. But Ted Cruz was absolutely weak on immigration now all of the sudden he got stronger. So let's see what happens. But I use the term 'Ronald Reagan,' I use the name 'Ronald Reagan,' and that's pretty good to me."