Donald Trump is fuming at the man George Bush called “the Brain” and says he may target him just as he did Rosie O’Donnell. Trump is telling business associates that Karl Rove will lead Republicans right down the drain just like he did with Bush’s final moments in office.
Trump is particularly angry because he says he donated mega-bucks to Rove’s political committees last year but now finds the strategist on Fox News attacking him and the idea of a possible presidential bid.
A Newsmax source attended a sit-down meeting when Trump talked with about a half-dozen heavyweight Republican donors in Manhattan — largely hedge-fund guys — about his political ambitions.
According to the source, Trump spent the first 10 minutes talking not about Obama but rather, about Rove, angrily referring to him several times as “the loser” and the man who’s destroying the Republican Party.
Trump already had voiced his displeasure with Rove, who appeared on Fox recently and slammed the billionaire as a “joke candidate” for his talk about Obama’s birth certificate. He said Trump has put himself on “the nutty right” by raising Obama birth questions and added, “The American people are not going to be hiring him and certainly the Republicans are not going to be hiring him in the Republican primary.”
On Monday, Trump struck back at Rove during an appearance via phone on “Fox & Friends.” Trump told the audience that Rove doesn’t “love me” because he, Trump, had been critical of Bush.
“I am very upset with Bush. He gave us Obama and Karl Rove was Bush.
“You could have backed Abraham Lincoln and he couldn’t have beaten Obama at that time because of what Karl and Bush had done.”
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Rove moderated his return volley on Wednesday, calling Trump “the flavor of the week” during an interview with Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren. Rove said Trump is leading the pack of potential GOP presidential candidates in several polls because he “says outrageous things.”
The source said: “Trump is angry because he donated to the guy.”
According to the participant at the meeting, Trump told the high-level donors that Rove saw him shortly before last year’s congressional election. Rove asked for a meeting and Trump agreed.
The two met at Trump’s Fifth Avenue offices in New
York. Trump told the group that Rove asked for, and received, a hefty donation from Trump of $100,000, split between two groups Rove was advising to help Republicans in the midterm elections.
A spokesman confirmed that Trump was at a private meeting and made comments about Rove, but would not confirm or deny the quotes attributed to him here. The spokesman confirmed that Trump did meet with Rove and that he had made a “substantial” donation to Rove’s organizations.
It has been reported that Rove’s PAC and its sister organization, an issue-advocacy group, raised more than $70 million. Most of the money was raised by the issue-advocacy group, which did not have to release information about its contributors because it did not expressly advocate a candidate.
Trump told the GOP biggies that he gave without hesitation at Rove’s request and he was shocked to see Rove’s negative attitude towards him on Fox, and thought Rove was a very disloyal guy.
“He totally kissed my a** when he came to my office. He told me I was the smartest guy in the universe. I couldn’t believe it when he opened up his mouth on Fox,” Trump told the group, according to the source.
Trump recounted how he destroyed Rosie O’Donnell, who smeared him, and how he didn’t let her get away easily. Trump publicly called O’Donnell a “real loser.” Later, O’Donnell acknowledged that she had made a big mistake going after Trump.
Karl Rove was unavailable for comment. However, Jonathon Collegio, communications director for American Crossroads, one of Rove’s political organizations, confirmed to Newsmax that Trump had donated to Crossroads.
“We are very, very grateful for Donald Trump’s 2010 donation of $50,000 to support American Crossroads and our efforts,” he said.