No GOP presidential candidate competing with frontrunner Donald Trump was safe from criticism during Trump’s press conference Thursday afternoon from Trump Towner, where he announced he signed the Republican National Committee’s loyalty pledge vowing to support the Republican nominee and not run as a third-party candidate, other than Carly Fiorina. He didn’t say anything negative about the former Hewlett-Packard CEO.
In just under thirty minutes, Trump took swings at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Rand Paul, and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
But one fellow GOP candidate Trump didn’t go after was Carly Fiorina.
Trump said he supported CNN’s decision to change the debate rules to include the former Hewlett-Packard CEO in the second GOP primary debate on September 16th in California.
However, Trump doesn’t like the idea of adding an 11th spot on the stage, saying it would take away time to hear from him.
“I think it’s great she’s in the debate,” Trump said of Fiorina, saying “She deserved to be in the debate.”
Trump then took his first swing toward fellow GOP presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
“They’re not getting rid of Rand Paul or somebody…and I think they should,” he quickly added, saying he thinks 11 people in the debate is too many.
Trump was asked about the RNC Chairman Reince Priebus coming to meet with him at Trump Tower about the pledge, and how New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed the pledge earlier in the day without holding a meeting.
“You don’t have to be met when you’re at two percent,” Trump shot back about Christie, taking a dig. He added, “and I like Governor Christie by the way.”
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was also a big target during the press conference, as the two have been going back and forth all week criticizing the other’s candidacy.
“I think that when you get right down to it, we’re a nation that speaks English and I think that when we’re in this nation we should speak English,” Trump said, as he’s been critical of Bush speaking Spanish on the campaign trail instead of the nation’s language – English.
“I’m not just talking about Spanish,” Trump added, saying it’s important for all language speakers to understand English when assimilating in America.
“Jeb Bush is a very nice man,” Trump conceded, but followed that up by characterizing Bush as “low energy” and “not what the country needs.”
Trump said that he has heard Bush will be spending a lot of money going after Trump in negative campaign advertisements.
“He’s getting the money from lobbyists and donors and they’re making him do it because he’s crashing in the polls,” Trump reasoned.
“One of the things I’m most honored about is that so far everybody who’s attacked me has gone down the tubes,” the frontrunner touted.
“You have Lindsey Graham attacked me – he was at 3 percent, now he’s at zero.”
“You have Perry attacked me – now he’s getting out of the race.”
“Rand Paul attacked me – I see the last poll, the Monmouth poll, just came out today…and Rand Paul is down to less than two percent – and he attacked me.”
Jeb Bush also went down in the Monmouth poll, Trump noted. “If I were him, I’d spend money on positive ads about himself.”
Other than Carly Fiorina, the only three people Trump said something nice about when questioned by a reporter was the RNC Chairman, saying he’s been fair to him, Tom Brady, and Kanye West — who made headlines recently saying he would run for president in 2020.
“Well Tom Brady’s a very good friend of mine,” Trump said when asked about the judge nullifying Brady’s four game suspension over the alleged Deflate-gate scandal earlier in the day.
He called Brady an “honorable” and “honest” guy.
“He’s so thrilled and so happy,” Trump said, adding that the attempt to punish Brady was terrible.
On Kanye West, Trump said he wouldn’t say anything negative about him, as West has been very kind to Trump.