Stephen Moore says that Trump will leave office 'triumphant,' comparing him to Winston Churchill

• Stephen Moore, a conservative economist, said in a Sunday radio interview that President Donald Trump would leave office on a high note due to the progress with COVID-19 vaccines and the economy.
• Moore touted the president's handling of the coronavirus with New York businessman John Catsimatidis.
• "I think he is going to leave the office triumphant," Moore said of the president. "By early next year, we will have a vaccine that nobody thought was possible.

Stephen Moore, a conservative economist and close ally of President Donald Trump, said on Sunday that the president would leave office "triumphant" due to the progress with COVID-19 vaccines and his opinion of an improving economy.

Moore touted the president's handling of the coronavirus vaccine during a WABC 770 AM radio interview with New York businessman John Catsimatidis.

"I think (Trump) is going to leave the office triumphant," Moore said. "By early next year, we will have a vaccine that nobody thought was possible.

Moore, who cowrote the book "Trumponomics" with economist Arthur Laffer, praised the president's handling of the economy, throwing out the possibility of strong growth in the last few weeks of 2020.

"We could actually end up with the economy in positive territory from where it was a year ago," he said.

Even with the US economy posting a 7.4% increase in gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter of 2020, Congressional inaction on additional stimulus measures threatens to stymie economic gains in 2021.

Last week, both Moderna and Pfizer announced that they had developed coronavirus vaccines with efficacy rates of 94.5% and 95%, respectively, an overwhelming breakthrough in the fight against the virus.

Moderna was backed by nearly $2.5 billion in spending as part of the Trump administration's "Operation Warp Speed," which was created to accelerate the vaccine development process in the wake of the pandemic.

Moore gloated about the positive news during the interview, giving credit to Trump while slamming President-elect Joe Biden with an unfounded attack.

"This is an incredible tribute to Operation Warp Speed," he said. "There's no way Joe Biden would have been able to do this. It will save hundreds of thousands of American lives and maybe tens of millions of lives around the world."

Biden was critical of Trump's handling of the pandemic during the entire presidential campaign, and it was a leading issue for many of his supporters.

Moore then compared Trump to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, widely revered for his leadership during World War II. Churchill served as prime minister from 1940 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1955, with his Conservative Party losing majority control in Parliament in 1945 and but sweeping back to power in 1951.

"Sometimes I think he's [Trump's] like Winston Churchill," Moore said. "The voters dumped Churchill a couple of times, and he kept coming back. Trump does not need to...put his tail between his legs. If Biden is the one who's pronounced the winner, I think Trump goes out in a triumphant, [US General] Douglas MacArthur kind of exit."

Republican Sen. David Perdue of Georgia also once compared President Donald Trump to Winston Churchill. But Trump did not find this to be a compliment, as Business Insider reported in 2018. Purdue said the president took offense and even called up Purdue to let him know.