Donald Trump has attacked his Republican rivals for their performances at the GOP presidential debate – branding Chris Christie “horrible”, Asa Hutchinson “a joke” and Ron DeSantis “a ‘BOMB’” in a string of late-night Truth Social rants.
While he refused to face his rival candidates in person and debate them on stage, Mr Trump was more than happy to hit out at them from behind the comfort of his keyboard.
In a series of Truth Social rants overnight on Wednesday, the former president singled out his biggest rivals for the Republican primary nomination while claiming his pre-recorded interview with Tucker Carlson to be a success with “over 100 Million” views.
Several of his posts took aim at former New Jersey governor Mr Christie – a man who was once a staunch ally and adviser to Mr Trump before becoming one of his most vocal critics.
“Chris Christie was horrible tonight. He was booed at a level never seen before at such a debate. He should have walked off the stage – Nobody wanted to hear from him! DJT,” he wrote.
“Why is Chris Christie wasting his time. Look at the crowds reaction to him!” he wrote in another.
Mr Trump clearly took issue with Mr Christie’s comments about him at the debate where he said that the Republican party has “got to stop normalising” Mr Trump’s allegedly criminal conduct.
His comments were met with boos from the Mr Trump supporters in the audience.
In another Truth Social post, Mr Trump fired back at Mike Pence after almost all of the GOP candidates reached a consensus that the former vice president did the right thing by refusing Mr Trump’s push to try to fraudulently certify the 2020 election in his favour.
“I never asked Mike Pence to put me above the Constitution. Who would say such a thing? A FAKE STORY!” he wrote in reaction.
On his closest rival in the polls Mr DeSantis – whose performance was largely underwhelming on the debate stage, Mr Trump wrote: “DeSanctimonious was a “BOMB” tonight, especially with his softball interview with Sean Hannity. This guy has totally forgotten his past. Who cares!?!?”
In another post, he wrote: “Ron DeSanctimonious is always talking about the number of votes he got in Florida. He doesn’t say that I got a record 1.1 Million more votes than him. He forgot!!!”
