ORLANDO, Fla. — Donald Trump’s Florida campaign chairman, Joe Gruters, was voted in as vice chair of the Republican Party of Florida in January 2015, and the GOP activist has made some notable enemies in the months since.
The campaign veteran, who also chairs the Sarasota County GOP, sat down with the Washington Examiner Thursday evening at RPOF’s Statesman Dinner where former Vice President Dick Cheney and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio both delivered remarks.
At one point during the interview, seconds after Rubio had passed by and said hello, Gruters turned to the Examiner.
“He f—ing hates me. He hates me,” Gruters said.
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As his eyes followed Rubio, his wife and a half-dozen staffers and security officers down the hallway, Gruters noted “that’s a big entourage.”
When then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist ran against Rubio for Florida’s Republican Senate seat in 2009, Gruters stood by the governor. Months later, when Crist dropped out of the primary to launch an independent bid, Gruters shifted his support to Rubio. The Trump ally reportedly calls himself a “disrupter by nature.”
Gruters kept his answer short when asked why Rubio would harbor ill will towards him.
“A lot of reasons,” he said.
“Relationships are a double-edged sword,” he added, before turning the conversation back to his plans to bolster support for Trump in the Sunshine State.
“I think our other candidates from Florida are all great people and would be great presidents,” Gruters said later on. “But at this particular point in time, Donald Trump is the one we need to elect because we need someone who is going to be aggressive and laser-focused on jobs.”
