Without naming Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, former President George W. Bush delivered an incisive critique of his policies of isolationism, nativism and protectionism at a private fundraiser in Cincinnati on Tuesday for Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, according to four people who attended. Mr. Trump has broken with GOP orthodoxy and pushed an America First platform that calls for renegotiating trade deals, reconsidering longstanding military alliances, and curbing immigration by Muslims and people from countries beset with terrorism. He has repeatedly denounced Mr. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, though he never publicly opposed the war before it began.
Mr. Bush told the crowd of about 400 people that he had been reflecting on threats against American exceptionalism, though he didnt put his remarks in the context of the 2016 presidential campaign. Mr. Bush spoke for 20 minutes in the Diamond Club of the Cincinnati Reds baseball stadium and spent another 40 minutes answering a half-dozen questions. Donald Trump is facing some of the harshest criticism yet from heavyweights in the conservative intelligentsia. Are questions about his state-of-mind and fitness for the presidency getting more serious? WSJs Jason Bellini has #TheShortAnswer.
It was an interesting exercise of statecraft, said Ken Blackwell, a former Ohio secretary of state. No one could say he directly spoke in attack mode against Donald Trump. Neither could anybody miss the fact that he thought there were some cutting-edge issues that Trump is advancing that need to be scrutinized and debated.
Freddy Ford, a spokesman for Mr. Bush, declined to comment on the former presidents remarks. A spokesman for Sen. Portman, Michawn Rich said, We are honored to have President George W. Bush in Ohio to help us raise well over $1 million in a single day.
Poster Comment:
former President George W. Bush delivered an incisive critique
Now there's something I have to give Trump credit for, exposing the WSJ for the craven degenerates we always knew they were.