Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump blasted President George W. Bush today in a Boston Herald Radio interview as a new Franklin Pierce/Boston Herald primary poll showed the billionaire surging ahead of the ex-president’s brother in New Hampshire.

Trump and Jeb Bush have sparred in recent days over the legacy of George W. Bush, who was in office during the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“The statement was made that ‘under my brother, we were safe,’” Trump said this morning, referring to an exchange during the most recent Republican debate. “But I said ‘wait a minute, we weren’t safe because the World Trade Center just came down, thousands of people were killed, it was horrific.’ It was the greatest attack in the history of this country, so you can’t say we were safe.”

Trump also criticized Bush 43’s invasion of Iraq, which he said he opposed at the time.

“We attacked Iraq, we destabilized the Middle East, we spent $2 trillion…and lives, thousands of lives and wounded warriors…and what do we have for it? Nothing,” Trump said. “I didn’t want to go into Iraq because I said we would be destabilizing the Middle East.”

Today’s Franklin Pierce/Boston Herald New Hampshire primary poll put the media mogul at the head of the GOP pack with 28 percent in the Granite State.

“I always like good news,” Trump said on Boston Herald Radio’s “Morning Meeting” show, in an interview moments after the poll was released. “I am not 100 percent surprised because … I am there so much and I love the people up there.”

The poll showed a dip in support for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who dropped to 9 percent from 13 percent in August – in fourth place behind Trump, retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson (16 percent) and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (10 percent).

“Jeb Bush is a very nice person…in a way, it’s amazing he hasn’t done better,” Trump said. “He’s doing poorly in the polls. He might have been the front-runner at one point, but he’s not anymore.”

Trump and Bush have lashed out at each other for weeks, beginning with the Sept. 16 Republican debate, when Bush made the “he kept us safe” comment. At the time, Trump responded, “I don’t know. You feel safe right now? I don’t feel so safe.”

Trump continued to criticize the former president last week, noting to a Bloomberg reporter, “when you talk about George Bush — I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time. … He was president, O.K.? Blame him or don’t blame him, but he was president. The World Trade Center came down during his reign.”

In recent days, Trump has charged that Bush’s loose immigration policy, poor communication between his intelligence agencies and failure to listen to the warnings of George Tenet, his CIA chief, made him responsible for the 9/11 attack.

“The FBI and the CIA and various agencies were not talking to each other, which is management in all fairness,” Trump said on Herald Radio today. “They didn’t like each other, they were jealous of each other, and a lot of things skipped through.”

Trump added that he had presciently warned of the danger posed by 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden.

“In my book from 2000, I was talking about Osama Bin Laden, I said you better watch him,” he said.

“Does anybody actually blame my brother for the attacks on 9/11? If they do, they’re totally marginalized in our society,” Jeb Bush responded on Sunday on CNN. He added that after the attacks, his brother “united the country, he organized our country, and he kept us safe.”

Trump fired back today.

“We were not safe because of the World Trade Center. If he would have said ‘we were after,’ but even then, he took us into the war in Iraq, which was a huge mistake because there were no weapons of mass destruction,” he told Herald Radio’s Jaclyn Cashman. “I didn’t want to go to Iraq because I said we would destabilize the Middle East and I was strong about that, but who is going to listen to me? I was a businessman.”

The new Herald/Franklin Pierce poll showed Trump’s favorability numbers climbing considerably – a 55 percent “favorable” rating in the latest poll, up 9 points compared with August. Bush’s fell from 62 percent to 57 percent.

“They are getting to know me,” Trump said with a chuckle. “I notice that about New Hampshire — also Iowa, because I spend a lot of time there — when they get to know me, they understand me better. They have read things about my business success, or they see me on ‘The Apprentice’ where I am always firing people, but they are getting to know me and I thought that might happen. There is tremendous love in the rooms.”

Trump said the enthusiasm has been palpable during his visits to the nation’s first primary state, noting his rallies routinely draw thousands of attendees.

“The theme is ‘make America great again’ and that is what they want to do,” Trump said. “They are tired of politicians who are essentially all talk and no action. I am very honored by your results.”

Trump said his direct approach and nontraditional campaign strategy has won over New Hampshire voters.

“I know how to act all different ways, but it’s not an act anymore,” he said. “A friend said to me, ‘how can you speak in front of such big crowds without notes or TelePrompTers’ — all these guys use TelePrompTers — but there is such a feeling in those rooms and the energy is incredible. It’s sort of easy and it does resonate.”

One aspect of the poll where Trump did not score especially well was in his perceived ability to work across the aisle. Only 3 percent of respondents said he was the candidate most capable of working with Democrats.

“I think it will be my strongest suit,” he told Cashman. “Don’t forget, I get criticized for supporting many Democrats. When I was a businessman, I supported everybody. I supported Republicans, Democrats, I made deal where I needed approval from everybody, where I needed unanimous approvals from city councils.”

Trump predicted that 3 percent figure will change in the not too distant future.

“I think that number may be the big sleeper…in two years, or three years, put that number down because that might be the big sleeper,” he said. “That’s what I do, I am a consensus builder. I will get along with everybody and I will get along, in my opinion, better than anybody and I will get along with the Democrats just fine. I know how to lead. I know how to get them to do what we have to do to make America great again.”

Pointing to an overflow crowd at last week’s campaign stop in the central Massachusetts town of Tyngsboro, Trump said he even could do very well in the Bay State.

“I think we will do great in Massachusetts, really,” he said. “We had thousands and thousands of people (in Tyngsboro). We were in a high school and they used two auditoriums and a kitchen – they have this massive kitchen – and there were thousands of people outside on top of that.

“When I walked out there, there were thousands of people outside,” he added, noting Massachusetts’ tendency to go blue on the electoral map. “A lot of people were shouting ‘I’m a liberal, I’m a Democrat, but I’m voting for you’ and I said ‘Why won’t we win Massachusetts? Look at the enthusiasm.’ ”

Trump said he did not reach out to Republican Gov. Charlie Baker for an endorsement and said he respects the Swampscott native, but doesn’t know him.

“I’m sure he knows a lot of other people in the field better than he knows me,” Trump said, adding that endorsements are not high on his list of priorities. “I am not sure endorsements mean that much. With rare exceptions, endorsements have not meant anything.”

Trump said his campaign also has not spent any money on advertising, despite having budgeted $20 million for ads to this point. The multibillionaire said he has spent “a few million dollars” of his own money on the campaign.

“I get so much press on the various networks and cable,” he said. “If you have a full cable show devoted to you and then you have an advertisement…it’s too much. We have literally spent zero on advertising which was going to be our biggest cost, but we have it ready in case we have to do it. We may have to do it, we may not have to do it, but we certainly have it ready.”

The Trump campaign — along with the Carson campaign — yesterday requested Secret Service protection. According to federal disclosure forms, Trump has spent $55,000 on private security over the past three months and routinely has several bodyguards surrounding him when he makes public appearances. While he declined to comment on whether he has gotten death threats, Trump said having the taxpayer-funded agency handle his protection is “probably necessary.”

“The big reason is that we have thousands of people,” he said, pointing to massive crowds in Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama. “I think it’s probably something that’s necessary and actually, they contacted us, so they probably think it’s necessary too.”

In the wide-ranging Herald Radio interview, Trump also weighed in on the Democratic field. He said he doesn’t think Vice President Joe Biden will jump into the fray.

“I personally can’t see why he would, I don’t think he’s going to win,” Trump said. “He’s got a legacy, he can go out now, he can go out on a high.

“Don’t forget, he has done it two or three times before and he has failed,” he added, referencing Biden’s past bids for the Oval Office in 1988 and 2008.

Toward the end of the nearly half-hour interview, Trump was asked about a 1990 Playboy interview in which he said he didn’t want to be a politician. His feelings have changed, Trump said, because he is in a good position financially and feels the country is worse off than it has ever been.

“It’s important, I think, that people know how successful I am because I want to put that brain to work, or whatever it is, to work” he said. “I don’t know what it is but I have always had the ability to do great things financially. There’s so many problems, I have never seen it like this, and we have no spirit as a country. I want to put my abilities to work…and get the country really strong again.”

Trump added that Playboy just approached him about doing another article.

“I think this time maybe I’ll pass,” he said, noting that it’s not just because the magazine recently said it would no longer be featuring pictures of nude women. “It’s not the same Playboy. In those days, it was the hottest thing you could do. Today, it’s a little bit different deal.”