WEST CHESTER, Pa. — John Kasich had been off Donald Trump's radar screen lately. Assessing his competition, Trump would occasionally mention Kasich as someone who attacked him in the early debates, only to suffer a withering Trump counterattack, after which Kasich quieted down and was no longer any trouble. In recent months, Kasich just wasn't important enough to attack.

At least, that's how Trump told it. But now, after the Ohio governor's deal with Ted Cruz to double-team Trump — shaky and late as it might be — Kasich has moved squarely back into Trump's crosshairs. In election eve appearances here in Pennsylvania and in Rhode Island, Trump mocked Kasich mercilessly, over and over and over again.

First, in Trump's telling, Kasich occupies the lowest rung of the political hierarchy: he's a loser who won't get out of a hopeless race. "So what happens with Kasich, he just says, 'I'm staying,'" Trump told a raucous crowd at West Chester University Monday afternoon. "He's 1 for 41. And he's not even doing as well as other candidates who could have stubbornly stayed in the race. Chris Christie, who endorsed me, Ben Carson, who endorsed me ... They could have stayed in the race. They could have said, 'I'm not leaving.' That's what this guy does. He's not leaving, under any circumstances."

Second, Kasich, with decades of experience in the House and the governor's office, also occupies the next-lowest rung in the Trump hierarchy: he's a career politician who won't keep his word. Just hours after announcing the deal under which he would not compete against Cruz in Indiana, Trump explained, Kasich told reporters he actually wants Hoosiers to vote for him. "Kasich, this morning, he said, 'What are you talking about? I want people to vote for me,'" Trump told the crowd. "In other words, he broke the deal. He broke the deal. This is politicians, folks — they're all talk, no action."

Third, Kasich lacks resolve. "They made a deal that Cruz was going to take Indiana. How weak is that? How pathetic is it, when they use collusion? How weak does this make them look? I said to my people that's great, it's going to make them look weak and pathetic, which they are, as politicians."

Fourth, Kasich is a failure. Not just in Ohio — "They lost their coal industry, their steel industry is down the tubes" — but during his years at Lehman Brothers, from 2001 until it collapsed in bankruptcy in 2008. "Take a look at the early debates and the way he came after me," Trump told the audience. "And the way I said, But you headed up Lehman Brothers. Lehman Brothers almost brought down the country. You were in Lehman Brothers when Lehman Brothers crashed — he was a managing director. I said Lehman Brothers almost brought down the country. What the hell are you doing running for president?"

Fifth, and finally, Kasich is a slob who doesn't even know how to eat properly. Monday morning, Kasich talked to reporters before eating breakfast in a South Philadelphia diner. When his food came, Kasich began eating but continued talking in an animated fashion, setting the stage for some serious Trump ridicule.

"This is just a guy who's a stubborn guy, who eats like a slob and shouldn't have press conferences while he's stuffing stuff down his throat," Trump said. "Honest — I've never seen anything like it."

"Did you see him? He has a news conference, all the time when he's eating. I have never seen a human being eat in such a disgusting fashion," Trump said at a rally earlier Monday in Rhode Island. "I'm always telling my young son Barron, always with my kids, all of them, I say, 'Children, small, little bites.' This guy takes a pancake and he's shoving it in his mouth. It's disgusting."

"Do you want that for your president? I don't think so."

The West Chester crowd — perhaps 3,000 to 4,000 people — laughed and cheered. That was perhaps because Trump was expressing what many already thought. When I talked to some attendees before the rally, their reaction to the Kasich-Cruz deal was notably Trumpian.

"It confirms what we've known from the beginning of civilization: Losers rally around to bring down winners," said Steve Core, of Lime Kiln, Pennsylvania. "It's that simple."

"It's pretty obvious what they're doing, right?" said John Barducci, of West Chester. "It makes them look weak — makes them look desperate."

Trump couldn't have said it better himself — and he basically did, an hour or so later. Over the last several months, many supporters have said they support Trump because he says what they want to say, but can't. That was the story Monday in West Chester.

Some might wonder where all the mocking and ridicule of Kasich fits into reports that Trump plans to become "more presidential" in his public persona. The fact is, those reports were both exaggerated and misunderstood. The Trump camp knew he had to stop making self-destructive mistakes — like attacking Cruz's wife — but wanted to ensure he kept the essential public character that has made him the Republican front-runner. And mocking his opponents — grown men who got in the race of their own accord — is fair game.

Trump himself explained it from the podium in West Chester. Maybe it's nice to be presidential, he said, but there is a race to win. "Some people want me to be presidential," Trump said. "I've got to be afraid of being too presidential."

"You know what? I've knocked off 16 [rivals] — one, two, really smart people. I've beaten one, another, another, another — one after another, a governor, a senator, another governor, another senator. And then they say, Oh, you should be more presidential. I better be careful not to be too presidential, folks."