New York Daily News

Twit ona tweet tear

- BY ADAM EDELMAN, ERIN DURKIN and CELESTE KATZ

DONALD TRUMP threw an epic Twitter tantrum Thursday, dissing Sen. John McCain, a former POW and the 2008 GOP presidenti­al nominee, as a “dummy” — and offering an equally caustic opinion of current rival Rick Perry’s intelligen­ce.

“@SenJohnMcC­ain should be defeated in the primaries. Graduated last in his class at Annapolis — dummy!” Trump tweeted after McCain accused him of having “fired up the crazies” in Arizona with his rants on immigratio­n.

McCain, a longtime supporter of immigratio­n reform, ticked Trump off by saying in a New Yorker interview that the mouthy mogul had “galvanized” extremists with a rally in Phoenix last weekend.

A spokesman for the senator declined comment, but former aide Mark Salter shot back on Facebook, writing that Trump “isn’t just an embarrassm­ent to the Republican Party . . . He’s an embarrassm­ent to the country.”

Speaking at a Bronx event, Gov. Cuomo, a Democrat, called Trump’s rhetoric on immigratio­n “offensive and wrong.”

“Our story as New Yorkers is we’re not afraid of immigratio­n,” he said. “We open our arms. We have the Statue of Liberty in our harbor. We love bringing people from different cultures. We think it makes us stronger, not weaker.”

Trump has drawn searing criticism, lost multiple business deals — and risen in the polls — since saying during his June presidenti­al campaign launch that Mexico is sending “rapists” and other miscreants across the U.S. border.

On Thursday, he also directed his signature “You’re fired!” ire at Perry, the former Texas governor who is seeking the GOP nomination — snarking on Twitter that Perry “failed on the border” and “should be forced to take an IQ test before being allowed to enter the GOP debate.”

That was far from all the virtual venom pumped out by Trump, who this week filed a financial disclosure and claimed a net worth of more than $10 billion. He also took aim at Republican strategist Karl Rove.

“Irrelevant clown @Karl Rove sweats and shakes nervously on @FoxNews as he talks “bull” about me,” he tweeted a day after Rove appeared on TV. “Has zero cred. Made fool of himself in ’12.”

Trump also got into it with MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell, who had dismissed the candidate’s financial disclosure­s as a “complete and total lie.”

“Dopey @Lawrence O’Donnell, whose unwatchabl­e show is dying in the ratings, said that my Apprentice $ numbers were wrong. He is a fool!” raved Trump, whose campaign said he collected more than $213 million during his 14 seasons on NBC’s “The Apprentice.”

Trump also teed off on entertaine­r Penn Jillette, who appeared on O’Donnell’s program. “I loved firing goofball atheist Penn @pennjillet­te on The Apprentice. He never had a chance.”

Jillette responded on OpieRadio that he still likes Trump, but that’s not enough to vote for him.

“The very pettiness and the very honesty that I respect him for so much, if you’re going to be President, we can’t have that,” he said.

 ??  ?? Donald Trump not only says hateful things, he tweets them as well, he proved on Thursday.
Donald Trump not only says hateful things, he tweets them as well, he proved on Thursday.
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States