Donald Trump on Friday needled Karl Rove for his unsuccessful attempt to elect Mitt Romney in 2012.
“I think Karl Rove still thinks Romney won,” Trump said on “The Mike Gallagher Show.”
{mosads}“[Rove] took hundreds of millions of dollars, spent them on campaigns and didn’t win one race,” Trump added.
“Man, that is really pathetic. The whole Romney thing is such a disaster because Romney should have won that race.”
Rove’s super-PAC, American Crossroads, spent tens of millions of dollars in 2012 trying to elect Romney president. During an appearance on Fox News on the night of the election, Rove famously refused to concede that President Obama had won.
This time around, Rove has emerged as a strong critic of Trump, warning Friday in an op-ed that Republicans will lose the White House, the Senate and a number of House seats by nominating him.
“If Mr. Trump is its standard-bearer, the GOP will lose the White House and the Senate, and its majority in the House will fall dramatically,” the Republican wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal.
Trump fired back, calling Rove “a total lightweight” who is ignoring the polls.
“I have this massive percentage lead. When you have 42 percent and there are 15 people, that’s a tremendous percentage. I’d take it if you had three people.”
Trump said he would soon prove pundits like Rove wrong by winning decisively in early-voting states such as Iowa and South Carolina.
“I’d love to win Iowa [and] I think I’m going to do great in Iowa,” he said. “I’m way ahead [in South Carolina]. Even my enemies say I’m way ahead there.”
Trump has repeatedly slammed Rove for doubting his White House chances, calling the top adviser to former President George W. Bush a “biased dope” last November.