Joe Scarborough on Tuesday said Donald Trump’s victory in the Iowa caucuses was actually “bad news” for the GOP front-runner ― and the MSNBC host used former President Barack Obama to make his point. (Watch the video below.)

Trump received 51% of the vote Monday night, well ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 21% and ex-UN Ambassador Nikki Haley’s 19%.

But on “Morning Joe,” Scarborough saw weakness in Trump’s triumph.

“I want to look at this another way,” Scarborough said. “If Barack Obama took four years off and then ran in a Democratic caucus in Iowa, would 50% of Democrats vote against Barack Obama? No, no they wouldn’t.”

“We can all sit here and, you know, put on sackcloth and ashes and, and moan about Donald Trump getting 51% of the vote,” the host continued. “Got to say, for people who actually want to win general elections, that’s not good news.”

NBC analyst John Heilemann imagined Obama earning up to 95% of the vote in a similar situation while noting that former President Trump is “effectively the incumbent running in the Republican Party” and not performing as well as a former president should.

Scarborough’s skepticism echoed Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

“I mean, this is the most famous Republican. He’s the guy who, you know, basically built the modern Republican Party, the MAGA Republican Party that the Democrats are running against, and half the people in that party didn’t vote for Donald Trump,” Pritzker said.

“It tells you the weakness of Donald Trump and also the opportunity for Democrats, ’cause in the end, look, if the base doesn’t turn out for Donald Trump in the general election enthusiastically, and Democrats turn out its base, this is all about independents, and independents don’t like Donald Trump,” the Illinois governor added.

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