Donald Trump held his first town hall meeting Wednesday night before a rowdy Derry, New Hampshire crowd that cheered, chimed in and booed when he mentioned his presidential rivals.
"These are my people," a gleeful Trump said.
Jeb Bush, the establishment favorite, was nine miles away holding a simultaneous town hall event, and Trump couldn't help but comment on the man who's crown he appears — at least for now — to have taken and whom he has described as an unenthusiastic candidate.
"Right down the road we have Jeb. Very small crowd," Trump said. "We have 2,500. … There are other rooms, overflow rooms all over the building."
As various members of the crowd shouted out support, Trump said, "I love these rowdy crowds. Isn't it great? This is spirit. There's spirit. … You know what's happening to Jeb's crowd, as you know, right down the street? They're sleeping."
Even the major cable news networks, including Fox, CNN and MSNBC, carried Trump's town hall live, while only briefly dipping in to Bush's event.
The energy in Trump's room kept up, even as he moved into issues.
Pointing to Bush's support for Common Core, Trump noted that "Jeb was supposed to do well in New Hampshire. How the hell does he do well?"
Common Core, he said, "means your children are going to be educated by the bureaucrats in Washington. I think New Hampshire wants to educate their children locally."
Trump said he still has trouble calling himself a politician, and refused to write that word as his profession on the form he had to fill out when he reported for jury duty a few days ago.
"I can't say it," he said.
When questions began, one man asked Trump why he didn't have more policy positions on his website than the recently added position on immigration.
Trump said he will putting out policy positions, but he wants to make sure they have flexibility.
"I have made a lot of great deals," he said. "I don't sit down and say, 'I will mark down 14 points'. … When you do 14 points, you know the second point may change."
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