Buckeye Reporter

After Hillary Clinton called supporters of Donald Trump a “basket of deplorables,” Bernie Moreno piled on.

The GOP activist donor and now U.S. Senate candidate agreed with Clinton that Trump supporters needed “education” and described them as blinded by “ignorance.” 

Moreno said Trump “stoked hatred” and compared him to murderous Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. He vowed to never support him as the Republican nominee for President.

"If Trump is the nominee, I think the Republican party now is a different party and not a party that I want to be a part of," Moreno told "Never Trumper" Meghan McCain. "There's no scenario in which I'd support Trump. I've come to that conclusion."

But that was then. Now, Bernie Moreno says he has changed his mind on the former president. Trump is no longer a "lunatic" and a "maniac," as Moreno once described him in emails to GOP fundraisers. 

Moreno is now "MAGA," and he has embraced President Trump's re-election bid, four years after publicly pronouncing his visceral opposition to it.

In Ohio, Trump surprised supporters by endorsing Moreno, his once-leading in-state critic.

Moreno has since leaned into Trump, now his best argument to skeptical Ohio GOP voters weighing the race to challenge incumbent U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in November.

Voters are assessing whether they can trust the Westlake auto dealer, who has only recently hardened his positions on core party issues like illegal immigration and abortion, over the more familiar conservative Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, or State Sen. Matt Dolan of Chagrin Falls.

"He appeals to the darkest part of human nature."

Participating in a CNN “race relations” forum, Moreno compared Trump to dictators in his native South America.

“The best defense against (Trump) populism is education. Really being aware, because people do take advantage of ignorance in our society all the time, he said.

In tweets, Moreno mocked Trump's signature red "Make America Great Again" hat as "cheap" and attacked him for calling for a border wall, describing it as anti-immigrant.

"He attacked immigrants, tries to silence the press, & appeals to the darkest part of human nature," Moreno tweeted in Feb. 2016, then asking his followers whether he was describing "Donald Trump or Adolf Hitler."

He told McCain that Trump supporters were blinded by hatred.

"I think they have to open their eyes a little bit more and see what Trump's message is really about," he said. "Is that the America that we really want... where...hatred is stoked and fears are what drive our decision making?"

Once Trump won the White House, Moreno didn't relent.

In 2018, he was a leading financial backer of so-called “Never Trump” Republican U.S. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Avon Lake), who called Trump a "cancer for the country" and was one of ten U.S. House Republicans who voted for his impeachment.

A year later, on the eve of Trump's re-election campaign, Moreno told WKYC-TV he didn't support Trump's re-election, even if his daughter did.

"My daughter works on Trump 2020," Moreno said. "And she's free to do that. We have a vigorous debate at home about politics, and my daughter works on the Trump campaign. That doesn't mean that I support the Trump campaign."

Moreno’s daughter, Emily, eventually married a former Trump Administration aide, U.S. Rep. Max Miller (R-Shaker Heights) in August 2022. 

Miller, a Trump ally, has also endorsed Moreno in the primary.

Election Day is March 19. Early, in-person voting begins Feb. 21.