Trump on Carson: ‘How stupid are the people of Iowa?’

Donald Trump railed against GOP presidential rival Ben Carson’s life story in a 95-minute speech late Thursday, telling Iowa voters they were “stupid” if they believed him.

“Give me a break, give me a break, give me a break,” he told listeners during a rally in Fort Dodge, dismissing a tale Carson describes as a miracle in which he tried to stab someone, only to have the blade break on a belt buckle.

{mosads}“He took the knife and he went like this and plunged it into the belt and amazingly the belt stayed totally flat and the knife broke,” Trump said, recounting Carson’s tale while imitating knife thrusts.

“Anybody have a knife and want to try it on me?” the Republican presidential front-runner asked. “Believe me, it ain’t going to work. You’re going to be successful.

“How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?”

Trump’s remarks come as he is neck-and-neck with Carson in the race for next year’s GOP presidential nomination. He is ratcheting up his attacks on the retired neurosurgeon, who is surging in Iowa, after the pair’s formerly cordial relationship on the 2016 campaign trail.

The outspoken billionaire also suggested Thursday Carson’s struggles with his temper may mirror the mental issues of child molesters.

“It’s in the book that he’s got a pathological temper,” Trump said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” Wednesday night, referencing Carson’s memoir “Gifted Hands.”

“That’s a big problem because you don’t cure that,” he said. “As an example: child molesting. You don’t cure those people. You don’t cure a child molester. There’s no cure for it. Pathological, there’s no cure for that.

“I’m not bringing up anything that’s not in his book … when he says he’s pathological — and he says that in his book, I don’t say that — and again, I’m not saying anything, I’m not saying anything other than pathological is a very serious disease.”

Carson and Trump’s dominance of the Republican presidential primary is worrying some GOP strategists who believe neither candidate can win a general election.

At issue is the pair’s lack of political experience, tendency toward controverisal remarks and disregard for establishment politics.

Some longtime Republicans are so worried that they are considering drafting former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney for another bid, The Washington Post reported Friday.

Romney has repeatedly stated he has no interest in a third Oval Office bid after unsuccessful attempts in 2008 and 2012.

Trump has frequently mocked Romney’s losses during his 2016 campaign. He said Thursday that the former businessman “choked like a dog” in the last presidential election.