Donald Trump on Friday exploded into an extended rant against veteran Republican Karl Rove after the strategist criticized him.
In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Rove wrote about the “muted enthusiasm” for the ex-president after only 68 percent of his supporters at CPAC said they wanted him to run again in 2024.
In response, Trump blasted the former White House adviser as a “pompous fool” who has “been losing for years, except for himself.”
“Karl Rove’s voice on Fox is always negative for those who know how to win. He certainly hasn’t helped Fox in the ratings department, has he?” Trump said.
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“Never had much of a feeling for Karl, in that I disagreed with so many of the things he says. He’s a pompous fool with bad advice and always has an agenda.”
Trump went on to blame Rove for the defeat of Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in the Georgia special election for the US Senate in January.
“Should have been an easy win but he and his friend Mitch blew it,” Trump added.
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In his op-ed, Rove explained why he thought there was a lack of enthusiasm from the former president’s “most fervent fans.”
“The explanation may be in what the ex-president said and didn’t say in his 15-minute definition of Trumpism,” he wrote.
“There was no forward-looking agenda, simply a recitation of his greatest hits. People like fresh material. Repetition is useful to a point, but it grows stale.”
While attacking Rove, Trump had a warning for Republicans:
“If the Republican Party is going to be successful, they’re going to have to stop dealing with the likes of Karl Rove and just let him float away, or retire, like Liddle’ Bob Corker, Jeff “Flakey” Flake, and others like Toomey of Pennsylvania, who will soon follow.
“Let’s see what happens to Liz Cheney of Wyoming,” he added.
INBOX: A statement from the former president of the United States about Karl Rove: pic.twitter.com/9D7pG0JLj7
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) March 5, 2021
