WaPo: Trump looking to Reagan and Kennedy for his Inaugural speech

From the Washington Post.

Trump told them that Reagan’s “style” and Kennedy’s articulation of grand national ambitions are central to how he thinks through his own speech, which will be given Jan. 20, the people said.

And while Trump is working closely with Stephen Miller, his aide and speechwriter, on the text, he confided that in recent days he has become more personally involved in the writing process, the people said.

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Trump made his private remarks during lunchtime at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., to presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, Bloomberg columnist Margaret Carlson, Democratic lobbyist Thomas Quinn and Newsmax Media chief executive Christopher Ruddy, who is a longtime friend of the president-elect.

While the media and political personalities were dining together as Ruddy’s guests, Trump — who has been at the property for most of late December — ventured over at various points during a two-hour period to speak with them, the people said.

A person familiar with Trump’s comments said he is “enamored with Reagan’s confident style and how he connected with the country.”

“He went on and on about Reagan and how much he admires him. But it wasn’t all about Reagan. He spoke about Kennedy and how he was able to get the country motivated, to go to the moon. He’s thinking about both men as he starts to write the speech, which is something he’s now taking the lead on,” the person said.

The person added that part of the draw to Kennedy is that Trump knows that “what would have been Kennedy’s 100th birthday will come only a few months after his inauguration next year.”

When reached Wednesday by phone, Brinkley, who is a professor at Rice University in Houston, declined to discuss Trump’s framework for the inaugural address. But he confirmed that Trump spoke at length about history and asked questions about past inaugurations.

“We talked about JFK and Reagan and about how William Henry Harrison caught pneumonia after giving too long of an inaugural speech,” Brinkley said. “I was there as a presidential historian, telling stories and listening to his view of the presidency.”

Brinkley said he found Trump to be “relaxed and utterly gracious” and “as happy to talk about NBA basketball as he was about history.”

Interesting that he people he was speaking with are almost all Democrats.