Trump and Rubio Go At it Like a Couple of Kids, But They’re Both Right

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 01:47 pm

Donald Trump knows no limits when it comes to attacking anyone who disagrees with him, even as he whines and rants that he is treated unfairly when he is asked simple questions, questions we would expect to be asked of any candidate.

Trump has called Marco Rubio “kid” and “baby” and Rubio has shot back that Trump is “thin-skinned,” “sensitive,” and “touchy.” Trump has even accused Rubio of “sweating too much.” Trump called Rubio a “clown” at the Values Voter Summit and Rubio has said he wants no part of Donald Trump’s “freak show,” telling NPR after months of silence,

“I’m not interested in the back and forth, to be a member or a part of his freak show. He is a very sensitive person, he doesn’t like to be criticized.”

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But the back and forth has taken on a life of its own, regardless. According to Rubio,

“He is a very sensitive person. He doesn’t like to be criticized. He responds to criticism very poorly. … His poll numbers have taken a beating, and he was embarrassed on national television at the debate by Carly Fiorina and others.”

The Florida senator can’t be rated highly where veracity is concerned, given his completely dishonest statements about Democrats, but he has Trump pegged, and it’s actually quite funny to follow. Watch how Rubio elicits exactly the response he was looking for from Trump to prove his point in this exchange:

RUBIO: “This election is not going to be about Donald Trump: He thinks it is, but it’s not. Every time issues become prominent, he will say something outrageous or do something outrageous so that he doesn’t have to talk about the issues.”

TRUMP: (When asked about Rubio’s remarks) “Senator Rubio a lightweight.”

As The Washington Post has pointed out, “Trump said Rubio gets only ’12 people’ to attend his events, is beholden to his major donors and is ‘very, very weak’ on immigration.” While in New Hampshire, Trump claimed Jeb Bush was drawing 125 people to his event.

Trump, as we all know, is just to the right of Adolf Hitler on immigration. And if Trump got 125 people at a rally he’d claim he got 10,000. Remember that Trump took a shot at Bernie Sanders too, while in New Hampshire: “Nobody has crowds like us. Nobody. Including Bernie.”

Which, as it happens, is the opposite of the truth: nobody draws bigger crowds than Bernie Sanders. Trump had promised to outdraw Sanders in Alabama by drawing 42,000 but he got about 20,000 instead. His response is to simply lie and claim he gets bigger crowds anyway.

What’s funny is that Rubio couldn’t help but point to Trump giving “a speech in South Carolina to an empty crowd.” Or as MSNBC called it, a “half-empty room of white people at black business event.”

What’s funny about all this back and forth is that according to Trump’s special counsel and spokesman Michael Cohen, Trump doesn’t care about Rubio and doesn’t even think about Rubio:

“He’s still eight times higher than Marco Rubio. He doesn’t think about Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio doesn’t mean anything to him.”

Which begs the question: then why do you keep talking about him?

Look at Trump’s retweet yesterday about Marco Rubio:

This is not something you tweet about somebody you don’t think about.

None of this is to defend Marco Rubio, who is about as much of a lightweight as Trump claims. But Rubio also has Trump’s number and the two men, despite their childish back and forth, are accurate in their portrayals of each other as completely unsuitable for the White House, and the more they talk, the more they prove it.

Now, whose turn is it next?

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.