Donald Trump said Friday that he may be willing to back Jeb Bush if the former Florida governor wins the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
In an exclusive interview with
Newsmax TV, Trump was asked whether he would be more likely to throw his support behind Bush, or run as a third-party candidate, should Bush be tapped as the the Republican nominee.
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"I can't say yet, it's too early. I can certainly see myself supporting him because he's a good person," Trump said on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
But despite his kind words about Bush, Trump told Malzberg he still has problems with his policies.
"I
've expressed difficulty with Jeb. He's in favor of Common Core which is a disaster. He's very weak on immigration, very, very weak on illegal immigrants coming into the country. Very weak and that bothers me," Trump said.
"He used the expression, people come as an act of love. Tell the families that were devastated by people that come in illegally and the illegal immigrants kill members of families, tell them it's an act of love.
"He's got some big problems. I like him. I met him, really, I met him years ago but for the first time in a long time I met him the other day on the stage and he's a nice person, but we need a person with high energy to turn this country around."
And, Trump noted, he's a high-energy go-getter.
"You need high, high energy. I do. I have the market on a lot of things. I know what I'm doing," Trump said.
Trump and Bush have been at loggerheads in the past few weeks.
Earlier this week, Trump, the Republican front-runner, was less than gracious when speaking about Bush, saying: "I don't see him as a factor.... He's terrible. He's weak on immigration. Sanctuary cities. Did you know that he had five of them in Florida when he was governor?"
And Trump also released a 15-second video featuring footage of President George H.W. Bush and his infamous "read my lips" remark about not raising taxes, President George W. Bush and his "weapons of mass destruction" debacle, and then Jeb Bush. The clips are accompanied by circus music.
"Enough is enough — no more Bushes" Trump said on Twitter.
Bush tore into Trump for his controversial remark about blood coming out of Fox News star Megyn Kelly during her tough questioning of him during last week's Republican presidential debate, a remark which some perceived as a reference to Kelly's menstrual cycle.
"What Donald Trump said is wrong.... That is not how we win elections and worse yet, that is not how you bring people together to solve problems. Mr. Trump ought to apologize," Bush said.