Donald Trump’s long indifference to fellow Republican presidential candidate John Kasich came to an end this weekend and Monday. Trump attacked Kasich as being a poor governor and being weak on immigration on the same day polls showed the two candidates running neck and neck in Kasich’s home state of Ohio.
“You know, you have a governor that frankly a lot of things have happened that have not been good,” Trump told Fox News Monday night, just a day before Ohioans were set to vote in the GOP primary. “Now, they had the one asset where they struck oil. They happen to be on top of oil, and that’s helped them but now that oil is down, they have got a lot of problems. They lost a lot of businesses. Ford left, so many different businesses left … They have moved to Mexico and that’s not good and you know, frankly he approved NAFTA. He wants to approve TPP which is going to be just as bad as NAFTA, maybe worse.”
The New York businessman bashed Kasich’s experience and principles, calling him “very weak on illegal immigration,” an issue that has been important to GOP primary voters this year. Trump also blamed Kasich for losing businesses to other states and to Mexico.
Speaking the day before at a rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, Trump said the governor was weak, not bright and had made decisions that contributed to creating the recession.
Kasich has not fought back at the level Trump has but responded subtly with a campaign appearance over the weekend alongside 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a strong Trump critic.
