Rove, who served as George W. Bush’s chief strategist, penned an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday in which he claimed that Trump’s speech last Sunday to the Conservative Political Action Conference was wanting.
The former Trump 2020 campaign adviser also wrote of so-called “muted enthusiasm” for the former president, noting that in a straw poll of CPAC participants, only 68 percent wished Trump would run for president again in 2024, while 32 percent did not want him to run or had no opinion.
In a lengthy statement issued by Trump’s office in Palm Beach, Florida, on Thursday, Trump branded Rove a “Rino—Republican In Name Only.
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“Karl Rove has been losing for years now, except for himself,” Trump wrote.
“Never had much of a feeling for Karl, in that I disagreed with so many of the things he says. He’s a pompous fool with bad advice and always has an agenda,” Trump continued.
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“He’s a RINO of the highest order… Karl Rove’s voice on Fox is always negative for those who know how to win. He certainly hasn’t helped Fox in the ratings department, has he?”
Trump additionally accused Rove of being responsible for the Republican Party’s defeat in the January Senate runoff election and said the party should “just let him float away.”
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“Should have been an easy win but he and his friend Mitch blew it,” Trump later added.
He elaborated that Rove had called him on election night to congratulate him for his “great win” and also said that Rove had come to the Oval Office “lobbying for 5G.”
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Referencing his recent CPAC speech, Trump wrote that he had “the largest television audience of the week.”
The former president wrote “31 million people listened to my CPAC speech online, and it had among the largest television audience of the week, even though it was on cable at 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.”
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In his Wall Street Journal criticism of Trump, Rove claimed that the 90-minute speech had “no forward-looking agenda,” and was “simply a recitation of his greatest hits. People like fresh material. Repetition is useful to a point but it grows stale.”
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PRove dismissed Trump’s criticism in a statement to Reuters.
“I’ve been called a lot of things in my career, but never a RINO. I’ve voted for every Republican presidential candidate since I turned 18 and have labored only for GOP (Republican) candidates since then,” Rove said.
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“I have a different recollection of Mr. Trump’s views on 5G and our conversation election night. I’ll continue to use my whiteboard and voice to call balls and strikes.”
In a second statement released on Thursday, Trump also criticised the Wall Street Journal editorial board for calling on Republicans to abandon him.
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