Ex-House GOP leader: Trump won’t survive primaries

Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor doesn’t think Donald Trump will make it through the primaries.

Cantor, who is backing former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for president, told Bloomberg in an interview at the Davos Economic Forum that he doesn’t think Trump will be the GOP nominee.

{mosads}The former Virginia Republican lawmaker also warned of dire consequences for the global economy if he does win.

“Unfortunately I do think that if there were to be a Trump administration the casualty would likely be trade,” Cantor, now vice chairman of Moelis & Co., told Bloomberg. “That’s a very serious prospect for the world.” 

Trump and Cantor have tangled in the past over Cantor’s endorsement of Bush.

“Who wants the endorsement of a guy (@EricCantor) who lost in perhaps the greatest upset in the history of Congress,” the Republican presidential front-runner tweeted in August. 

Cantor was defeated in a Republican primary to Rep. Dave Brat, an economics professor who wasn’t well known in political circles. 

In October, Cantor said Trump’s support comes from a “small vocal minority,” that wasn’t “reflective of the Republican Party.

“There’s a real difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party and I would not say Donald Trump is reflective of the Republican Party, he’s not a conservative,” Cantor said in an interview with BBC’s “HARDtalk.”

Trump has been leading in national polls and in many states.

In a New Hampshire poll released Wednesday by CNN and WMUR, he led his closest competitor by 20 points. 

Bloomberg’s story that included Cantor’s remarks focused on how many of the 2,500 business and political leaders at Davos were worried about Trump, in part because of his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country.