Republican front-runner Donald Trump gave some backhanded praise to his primary opponent, Jeb Bush, for traveling to the border, criticizing his past remarks on immigration and for being “low energy.”
“I think it’s great he’s going to the border, I think he’ll … find out it’s not an act of love,” Trump told “Fox and Friends” on Monday morning. “I was down on the border. It’s rough, tough, stuff. This is not love, it’s other things going on.”
Bush, who’s in McAllen, Texas, on Monday for a tour of the border, has previously made comments in regards to illegal immigration where he called it a “different kind of crime” and an “act of love.”
“Yes, they broke the law, but it’s not a felony. It’s an act of love, it’s an act of commitment to your family,” Bush told Fox News host Shannon Bream at an event last year.
On Monday, Trump also weighed in on a new video showing alleged drug smugglers scaling the border fence between Arizona and Mexico.
“I was very impressed with the shape these guys were in, the way they got over that wall was actually incredible, carrying loads of drugs and on their back and when I was there I saw something that was amazing: the drugs go out and the money comes in,” Trump said.
Trump and Bush spent last week scrapping in New Hampshire, with Trump criticizing Bush’s attacks as “low energy” Monday and also said that other candidates who nailed him had fallen in the GOP pack as a result.
He specifically criticized former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, saying “They all went down to zero and they’re getting out.”
Perry and Graham have not said they are getting out of the race, but Perry has been struggling with campaign expenses recently.