Donald Trump went after both campaign finance and Jeb Bush. | Getty Trump: Bush ‘wasted’ special-interest money but now wants to end super PACs

Donald Trump on Monday blasted Jeb Bush for saying he would overturn a Supreme Court decision empowering super PACs only after his own super PAC raised more than $117 million in 2015.



“Now that Bush has wasted $120 million of special interest money on his failed campaign, he says he would end super PACs,” Trump tweeted Monday after a rally in Londonberry, New Hampshire. “Sad!”



Trump doubled down on his argument in an appearance on MSNBC. “He just announced — he spent $120 million in the campaign — he just announced about 20 minutes ago that he’s now against super PACs,” he said. “Well he’s spent most of the money in a super PAC and now he announces that he is against super PACs. It’s really pretty sad. He’s a sad — he’s a sad case.”

The pro-Bush super PAC, Right to Rise USA, raised $117.6 million last year, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The former Florida governor, however, told CNN’s Dana Bash he would “eliminate the Supreme Court ruling” if he could.


But Bush has long held that view. In June, for example, Bush said that in a perfect world candidates would be able to raise as much money as they can — but in a transparent way that would allow voters to determine whether the donations were appropriate.

“The Supreme Court has ruled that restricting contributions directly to campaigns is OK but unrestricted campaign donations for other forms of political organizations is not,” Bush said last summer at a town hall in Derry. “Unlimited monies for super PACs and then restrictions for campaigns — it doesn’t make sense to me.”



Speaking at a campaign event in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Monday, Bush said overturning the decision, Citizens United v. FEC, would be the “ideal situation.” ”I would turn that on its head if I could,” he said.



Trump has often criticized Bush for having a super PAC that spends so much money attacking him. The billionaire businessman constantly notes his dominant poll standings despite how little he’s spent on his campaign relative to his rivals, especially Bush.





“When you see these PACs, when you see a guy like Jeb, a guy who’s a very average guy or a less than an average guy, having all of this money where they give him $128 million to waste, and then he takes ads against me...” Trump said at a campaign stop Monday. “I think he’s spent $25 million on negative ads on me, and my poll numbers went up! No, it’s incredible.”

Trump finished second in the Iowa caucuses last week and maintains a double-digit lead in New Hampshire polls ahead of the state’s first-in-the-nation primary Tuesday. Bush finished sixth in Iowa with less than 3 percent support but is among a group of candidates that could finish second in New Hampshire.