Donald Trump: Jeb Bush a ‘nice person’ without ‘energy or capacity’ to make country great

Real estate mogul Donald Trump hit back at former Florida Gov. and 2016 GOP rival Jeb Bush Monday evening after Mr. Bush, during a visit to Texas, had criticized Mr. Trump’s immigration plans as “not grounded in conservative principles.”

“Look, Jeb Bush is a nice person. He doesn’t have the energy or the capacity to make our country great again,” Mr. Trump said on Monday evening’s “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News. “That I can tell you a hundred percent. And you do need the wall. The wall is very important, and I think even you agree with the wall, Bill.”

During a visit to McAllen, Texas, Mr. Bush said Mr. Trump’s plans — which call for mass deportations of illegal immigrants, a repeal of birthright citizenship and a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border — are not “grounded in conservative principles.”

“The simple fact is that his proposal is unrealistic, it will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, it will violate people’s civil liberties, it will create friction with our third-largest trading partner that’s not necessary, and I think he’s wrong about this,” Mr. Bush said.

The two have gotten into it recently, with Mr. Bush saying that in contrast to Mr. Trump, he’s a proven conservative with a record, and Mr. Trump repeatedly calling Mr. Bush “low energy.”

“He talks about civil liberties — we have illegal people, people that came in illegally, you tell me about civil liberties,” Mr. Trump said. “We have to get ’em out. And some of these people are causing tremendous problems. All you have to do is look at the crime wave, number one.”

“As far as Mexico being our third-largest partner — they are making a fortune. We’re not making anything. Mexico [is] making a fortune ’cause their leaders are smarter, they know what they’re doing, our people are grossly incompetent,” he said. “Nabisco is now moving to Mexico. Ford is building a massive automobile plant in Mexico. They took a plant from Tennessee, it’s going into Mexico.”