Barry Bennett, the former Ben Carson campaign manager who resigned on New Year’s Eve, told The Daily Beast on Wednesday that he thinks Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee.

“I hear people say all the time he will explode,” Bennett said. “They have been saying that for a year. He hasn’t. Unless something very big happens he is not going to. I think people need to get ready for him to be our nominee.” Bennett, who cited strong disagreements with Carson’s business manager Armstrong Williams as his reason for leaving the campaign, said the polls are foretelling what will ultimately happen in the nominating process.

“You can’t suspend the laws of mathematics,” Bennett added. “If one thousand polls show him winning, he is likely going to win.”

—Gideon Resnick