Bloomberg will have to endure a torrent of Trump insults as he moves up in the polls.
By World Israel News Staff and AP
President Donald Trump has turned his ferocious talent for insult against Michael Bloomberg as the Democratic presidential contender rises in the polls.
Trump made effective use of grade-school insults during his 2016 drive to the White House, calling Hillary Clinton a “monster” and “nasty” after heaping scorn on his Republican rivals like Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio in the primaries.
New York billionaire Bloomberg has risen to 19% support nationally, a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll published Tuesday finds. He has qualified for the first time for an upcoming Democratic presidential debate.
Trump ridiculed his potential opponent as a “5’4” mass of dead energy.”
Trump seems to have a talent for finding taunts that sting. Bloomberg is clearly sensitive about his height. He listed himself as 5-foot-10 on his driver’s license, which he isn’t.
But he’s also not 5-foot-4. So say his doctor, people who have stood next to him and varying press accounts of his height from his years as New York City mayor.
In a letter released by Bloomberg’s campaign in December, Bloomberg’s doctor said the candidate is 5-foot-7-inches (and 165 pounds).
Trump’s insult got a rise out of Bloomberg, who tweeted as if to Trump: “Behind your back they laugh at you & call you a carnival barking clown. They know you inherited a fortune & squandered it with stupid deals and incompetence.”
Bloomberg also suggested that the president has a mini-mind. On Wednesday, Bloomberg told a Greensboro, North Carolina, rally, “He calls me Little Mike and the answer is, ‘Donald, where I come from we measure your height from your neck up.’”
Trump’s own height has been a moving target. He’s been listed at 6-foot-3-inches by the White House physician. But in 2016, Politico reported that his driver’s license had him as 6-foot-2, the same height as on his Selective Service registration card in 1964.
The former New York City mayor will appear in Wednesday’s debate in Las Vegas alongside former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Fellow billionaire and philanthropist Tom Steyer is still hoping to qualify.
Bloomberg’s campaign said that it was seeing “a groundswell of support across the country” and that qualifying for Wednesday’s debate “is the latest sign that Mike’s plan and ability to defeat Donald Trump is resonating with more Americans.”
“Mike is looking forward to joining the other Democratic candidates on stage and making the case for why he’s the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump and unite the country,” Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said in a statement.
The Democratic National Committee recently changed its rules for how a candidate qualifies for the debate, opening the door for Bloomberg to be on stage and drawing the ire of some candidates who dropped out of the race for failing to make prior stages. Candidates were previously required to receive a certain number of campaign contributions to qualify, but Bloomberg, who is worth an estimated $60 billion, is not taking donations.