Jeb Bush is far from being the greatest threat to Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who dominated the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night. But that hasn’t stopped Bush from drawing the ire of the New York billionaire in the final stretch before the South Carolina primary.
In typical Trump fashion, the brash, unfiltered businessman took to Twitter Thursday to criticize Bush’s exorbitant campaign spending and his family legacy.
“Jeb Bush spent more than $40,000,000 in New Hampshire to come in 4 or 5, I spent $3,000,000 to come in 1st. Big difference in capability!” Trump tweeted.
Hours later, he followed up with an attack against Bush’s recent inclusion of his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, and brother, former President George W. Bush, on the campaign trail and in new radio and TV ads.
Jeb failed as Jeb! He gave up and enlisted Mommy and his brother (who got us into the quicksand of Iraq). Spent $120 million.Weak-no chance!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 11, 2016
Bush spent his first day on the campaign trail in South Carolina, following his fourth place finish in the first-in-the-nation primary, taking repeated swings at Trump.
“We don’t need a president who thinks it is a victory to go bankrupt,” Bush told voters during a stop in Bluffton, S.C. “Trump can talk a good game, and he’ll win. He’s a good talker, [but] we don’t need talkers. We need doers.”
Trump leads his Republican rivals in South Carolina by more than 15 percentage points. According to the RealClearPolitics polling average of South Carolina Republicans, Trump draws 36 percent support, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, 19.7 percent, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, 12.7 percent. Bush is polling fourth in the state with 10 percent support.
