Republican front-runner Donald Trump took a shot at Mitt Romney on Saturday, saying he has stores worth more than the former GOP presidential nominee, while suggesting that the Republican party could unify under his business prowess.
Trump was in Cleveland Saturday afternoon continuing his campaign across the Buckeye State ahead of Tuesday’s primary there.
He used a rally to attack his detractors, with Romney high on the list. On a net-worth versus net-worth comparison, Trump said Romney was like a “little tiny peanut” in comparison to his wealth.
“I have a store that’s worth more than Mitt Romney,” Trump repeated a line he used to deride the relative poverty of Romney, whose net worth has recently been estimated at $250 million.
Trump pumped up the crowd by saying his detractors said he wouldn’t disclose his financial records to the federal election committee early on, trying to pigeonhole him as a candidate that should not be taken seriously.
“They said he’ll never run. Then they said he’ll never file form A, because that’s basically a one-pager where you sign your life away,” he said. “When I did that they said ‘woe!’ Then they said he’ll never file his financials. And I filed my financials [which was] almost a hundred pages, and its the best filed with the federal elections by a factor of a lot.”
Trump has not agreed to release his tax returns, a step Romney and others have urged.
Immediately after calling Romney a “peanut,” Trump said, “the truth is we have to bring our party together.”
“We’re going to win,” but “we have to bring our party together,” Trump said.
The story about his financials illustrates the “kind on thinking” needed in a president, he said, by underscoring his acumen as a businessman.
We are like the whipping post for everybody” in trade deals, Trump added, asserting that China, Mexico and other countries are “ripping off” the country.
