- July 06, 2015 -

Feud Grows Between Donald Trump and Jeb Bush

Read more at US News & World Report

A feud is growing between Jeb Bush and Donald Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential campaign.

Bush, the former governor of Florida who leads in some polls for the GOP nomination, said he "absolutely" took personal offense when billionaire Trump described Mexican immigrants as criminals and labeled some as "rapists." Bush, whose wife comes from Mexico, told reporters in Merrimack, New Hampshire, that Trump's views are "way out of the mainstream" of the GOP. "To make these extraordinarily ugly kind of comments is not reflective of the Republican party," Bush said Saturday. "...He's doing this to inflame and incite and to draw attention, which seems to be the organizing principle of his campaign."

Trump shot back quickly. "Today, Jeb Bush once again proves that he is out of touch with the American people," the billionaire businessman said in a news release. "....He doesn't understand anything about the border or border security. In fact, Jeb believes illegal immigrants who break our laws when they come across our border come 'out of love.'"

Trump had told CNN last week, "Last thing we need is another Bush" in the White House after the much-criticized presidencies of his father George H.W. Bush and his brother George W. Bush.

This exchange was the most pointed yet between the two GOP rivals, but Trump has been goading Bush for quite a while.

In making fun of the former governor's call for compassion toward people who enter the United States illegally, the real estate mogul was deriding Bush's remarks a year ago when Bush said, "The way I look at this is, someone who comes to our country because they couldn't come legally, they come to our country because their families – the dad who loved this children – was worried that their children didn't have food on the table. And they wanted to make sure their family was intact, and they crossed the border because they had no other means to work to be able to provide for their family.

"Yes, they broke the law, but it's not a felony. It's an act of love. It's an act of commitment to your family. I honestly think that that is a different kind of crime, that there should be a price paid but it shouldn't rile people up that people are actually coming to this country to provide for their families."

Trump's remarks that drew the ire of Bush and many others were from the announcement of his presidential candidacy June 16. Trump said, "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems....They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

Jeb Bush was indirectly criticized by Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton. Campaigning in New Hampshire, she attacked former President George W. Bush for his economic policies compared to those of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, "If you look at the evidence, at the end of Bill Clinton's two terms, we had the longest peacetime expansion in American history with 22 million new jobs, a balanced budget and a surplus that would have paid off our national debt if it had not been rudely interrupted by the next administration [George W. Bush's]."

She added: "There is just a pattern here where the other side keeps using the same old tired, failed polices. They don't work and then Democratic presidents have to come in and fix what was broken."

It was a way of tying Jeb Bush to the records of his father and brother, and raising questions about whether the Bush dynasty should be restored in the 2016 election.