The matter of Donald Trump's beliefs are a matter between "he and his Creator," Jeb Bush said Thursday afternoon in response to Pope Francis' statements
doubting the real estate magnate's Christianity.
But Bush also thought how Trump brought ISIS into the discussion should also be expanded on.
"If you you listen to his plans on ISIS, it has gone from we don't have a dog in the fight to letting Russia deal with ISIS, which they have no interest in doing," Bush told a gaggle of reporters in South Carolina. "Let ISIS take out Assad and then we're going to bomb the bleep out of ISIS. That's not a policy."
Pope Francis, on his return trip to Rome from Mexico, suggested that Trump is "not Christian" because of his call for building walls, not bridges.
Trump, firing back, commented in a statement on his website that "if and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS's ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened."
"The Swiss Army Guard is probably taking pretty good care of the pope, so I'm not worried about it," Bush responded to that comment.
The former Florida governor, who converted to Catholicism in the 1990s, said that he does not question anyone's Christianity as he believes that is a relationship one has with his or her creator, and as far as the pope's comments, "it only enables bad behavior when someone from the outside of our country talks about Donald Trump."
And concerning the pope's comments on building walls, Bush said he supports the idea when "appropriate."
"I also believe that we ought to have other parts of this, which is the Border Patrol, using their own technology," said Bush. "Using GPS technology. Across the board, we ought to have a strategy to protect our border. And that is clear. That is not an unchristian thing to do, to make sure that people don't come across our border illegally. That's a just thing."
Bush said that as a Catholic, he does believe it's "okay" to receive guidance from the pope, but "certainly not economic or departmental policy."
"I respect the pope, his voice will be heard," Bush said. "But dealing with ISIS, we need someone who has a steady hand in the strategy. I'm the only guy who laid out a strategy prior to the attacks. And I'm going to stick with that."