Donald Trump appeals to a segment of the population that is angry Republicans haven't been able to shut down President Barack Obama's agenda, GOP strategist Karl Rove said Wednesday, but he doesn't expect the attention the real estate mogul-turned-presidential candidate has been getting will continue.
"Each party has a populist element in it," the White House chief of staff under President George W. Bush told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program, and as people are angry with what is going on in the United States, "Trump appeals to them."
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However, with his attacks, Trump is suffering in another way, said Rove, waving a dry-erase board and pointing out that in a recent Fox Poll, voters were asked if Trump is "a serious candidate or a side show."
"Sixty-four percent of Republicans, 69 percent of conservatives and 55 percent of the Tea Party say it's a side show," Rove, a Fox News correspondent, told show host Bill Hemmer.
He continued that some of the back and forth will also hurt Trump in the long run. For example, Trump has commented that former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a challenger for the 2016 nomination, needs new glasses and that he has "failed at the border."
"Rick Perry was doing everything he could to control the border," said Rove. "It's a federal responsibility, and Trump was wrong to blame Perry for the failure of the federal government."
Trump has also "called the Republican Party clowns," and "he retweeted a message that Jeb [Bush] has to like immigrants because his wife is a Mexican."
But what matters, said Rove, is how much of the momentum Trump can hold.
"He's going to be here," he said. "He's going to be entertaining, and he's going to be trying to grab people's attention."
Trump has already taken a shot at Rove, tweeting that he "spent $430 million last cycle" as a volunteer with the American Crossroads super PAC that "didn't win a single race," said Rove, who disputed Trump's claim.
"It raised $103 million last cycle and won 10 out of 12 Senate races and 10 of the 13 most competitive House races in the country," Rove said. "It was on the winning side. So I don't know where he comes up with this stuff."
He said he imagines that Trump would "be probably tweeting within a few minutes something ugly about me" after the Fox show interview concluded, "but who cares. If you are going to unite the Republican Party and lead it, this kind of stuff won't give people confidence you are a leader."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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