The war of words between Donald Trump and Jeb Bush continued on Saturday, as the latter followed his assertion that “you can’t insult your way to the presidency” by calling Trump a jerk.



Bush, speaking at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, railed against Trump’s habit of offending demographic groups ranging from Muslims to women. Then he said: “Just one other thing – I gotta get this off my chest – Donald Trump is a jerk.”

The crowd in Contoocook broke into laughter and applause.

On Friday, on Twitter, Trump called Bush “dumb as a rock”.

After months of mockery from the real-estate billionaire, who has repeatedly condemned him as a “low energy” candidate, the former Florida governor chose the Republican debate on Tuesday to begin a week of fighting back.

In Las Vegas, he told Trump: “You’re not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency.” He has since repeated the line and he said it again in New Hampshire.

On Saturday a voter asked Bush about his record on supporting people with disabilities. Trump recently created a furor when he appeared to mock a New York Times reporter who has a disability, and then denied doing so.

Bush responded to the question solemnly, then paused before spitting out with clear exasperation that he thinks Trump is a jerk. He continued: “You can’t disparage women, Hispanics, disabled people. Who is he kidding?”

Warming to his theme, Bush said it was “deeply discouraging” that Trump was “actually running for president and insulting people”.



He called on supporters to reject that with a vote for him instead. Trump’s lead in the Republican primary is only getting wider, though, with a recent 39% poll return more than 10 times greater than Bush’s waning share.

On Saturday, Bush had a thinly veiled warning for voters about the outcome of the general if Republican voters make Trump their nominee.

“A guy like that should not be the front-running candidate of our great party. That is not how we win,” Bush said.

New Hampshire holds the first primary in the nation in early February, shortly after the Iowa caucus.

In one of the latest polls, for Fox News, taken since the GOP debate on Tuesday, Trump had increased his support among Republican voters to 39%. Ted Cruz was also rising, although far behind in second at 18%. Marco Rubio and Ben Carson were slipping and Jeb Bush was stuck at 3%.

Nationally, Fox had Hillary Clinton trumping Trump for the White House, 49% to 38%.

On a day packed with events in New Hampshire, Bush followed his “jerk” outburst against Trump by telling his audience: “I feel better now. I gave myself therapy there. Thank you for allowing me to do it.”