Donald Trump on Friday weighed in for the first time on Ted Cruz’s failure to disclose a loan from Goldman Sachs during his 2012 Senate campaign, and also slammed the Texas senator over his recent criticism of “New York values” and the controversy over his Canadian birth.
“How are you going to be president if you didn’t know about a million-dollar loan from Goldman Sachs? And you said it’s something you don’t know about, now he doesn’t know that he was a Canadian citizen? I mean, that’s in a way maybe worse than all the other things we’re talking about,” Trump told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview set to air Sunday on “State of the Union.”
The Republican front-runner’s spat with Cruz dominated the sixth Republican debate Thursday, hitting on two points raised earlier in the week: whether Cruz is a natural-born U.S. citizen and if Trump’s “New York values,” as Cruz has put it, are out of touch with the Republican base.
Asked if Cruz was making a subtle ethnic dig with his “New York values” comment, Trump said he didn’t know, adding, “probably you would have to ask him.”
But, Trump said, “I thought it was disgraceful that he brought that up. … I think he came across badly. Some people gave him pretty good reviews on the debate. I think he came across as very strident and not a nice person, and people don’t like that.”
Trump also dismissed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a recurring target during the brash billionaire’s campaign, as having “no chance.”
“Jeb has no chance. Jeb is spending so much money. Think of it, he spent $69 million, I spent nothing. He’s at the bottom of the pack, I’m at the top of the pack,” Trump said. He also dismissed South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s endorsement of Bush on Friday, saying he bowed out of the Republican race with “zero.”