GOP backlash to Trump grows

Three Republican presidential candidates have now blasted Donald Trump over his controversial remarks targeting immigrants from Mexico.

The comments have led business partners of the mogul to separate from him, even as the reality television star has seen his standing rise in the polls.

{mosads}New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is the latest Republican candidate to scold Trump for the remarks, saying Thursday that the remarks were “inappropriate” and had no place in the GOP race for the White House.

Christie followed Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who called Trump’s comments “wrong.”

“I don’t think he’s reflecting the Republican Party with his statements about Mexicans,” Perry said in a Thursday interview with Fox News host Charles Payne. “I think that was a huge error on his part and, number one, it’s wrong.” 

Trump for two weeks has been engulfed in controversy over comments he made about Mexico at his presidential launch from Trump Tower in New York City.

“They’re sending people who have a lot of problems,” he said of the country.

“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,” Trump added. “And some, I assume, are good people.”

NBC and Macy’s both cited the comments in breaking with Trump. Hispanic activists have also ripped Trump over the remarks, and celebrities such as “Ugly Betty” star America Ferrera have criticized him while arguing that Trump will help elect a Democratic president in 2016.

Top-tier GOP candidates have generally shied away from taking Trump on, possibly, according to some GOP strategists, because they do not want to elevate him to their level.

They could also fear ending up on the opposite end of the sharp-tongued businessman, who has criticized NBC and called for a boycott of Macy’s.

Former New York Gov. George Pataki has called on other GOP presidential candidates to sharpen their attacks on Trump, urging them to denounce him.

Trump quickly fired back at Pataki, who is trailing badly among the 14 candidates now running for the GOP presidential nomination.

Trump said Pataki was a “terrible” governor who couldn’t be elected “dog catcher” in a series of tweets.

The controversy has not hurt Trump in the polls. Some surveys have him in second place, both nationally and in polls of voters in Iowa and New Hampshire.

A few Republicans have praised Trump’s comments, notably Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, another presidential candidate.

In an interview with Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade, he credited Trump with focusing on an issue that “needs to be focused on.”

“I don’t think you should apologize for speaking out against the problem that is illegal immigration,” he said.