Scott Jennings, a longtime Republican strategist and senior commentator at CNN, has reportedly now emerged as one of the network’s most outspoken defenders of President Donald Trump — a far cry from his early skepticism.
In a candid interview on The PBD Podcast this week, Jennings acknowledged a personal transformation in how he views Trump, crediting a growing awareness of what the president stood for — and what his opponents revealed about themselves.
“I’ve voted Republican my whole life. And I did vote for him three times,” Jennings said. “But like everybody else, I didn’t get it… I did not understand it. I did not get how this guy who hadn’t been a Republican was coming along to take over the Republican Party.”
What began as doubt eventually gave way to clarity, Jennings said, as he watched Trump’s critics react with hostility to even his most commonsense policies.
Over time, Jennings explained, the steady drumbeat of anti-Trump sentiment from media, Democrats, and even some Republicans helped clarify the stakes.
“The reflexive nature of his opposition — to hate and try to delegitimize him on everything he does — I think is terrible for America,” he said.
For Jennings, that realization crystalized into full support — especially heading into the 2024 election. “There was no — I mean, [Vice President] Kamala Harris versus Donald Trump? The idea of common sense versus whatever it is she was selling,” he said.
Jennings accused Trump’s critics of rooting against the country in their zeal to oppose him. “On the tariffs, all April, they were hoping it would fail,” he recalled.
“On Iran, when we bombed the missile sites, what’s the first thing that happened? ‘We gotta impeach him.’ ‘Oh, he didn’t do that much damage.’ The immediate delegitimization of this guy — every time he does something, they root for America’s failure.”
The conservative commentator made it clear that while he does not align “100%” with Trump on every issue, he far prefers him to the alternative. “I like it that he roots for America,” Jennings said. “And I hate it that they root against America just because he did it.”
His remarks reflect a sentiment increasingly voiced within conservative circles — that the anti-Trump movement has grown so reactionary and entrenched that it now undermines national interest for political gain.
For Jennings and others like him, Trump’s blunt force style and outsider status have become less of a liability and more of a necessary correction to a political culture too comfortable with failure and too resistant to change.
[READ MORE: Hawley Proposes Tariff Rebate Plan to Return Wealth to American Families]
