Paul: Trump ‘pretending to be conservative’

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) suggested late Thursday that fellow GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump was misleading voters in presenting himself as a conservative.

“I really have no idea what he believes in, because he’s been on both sides of every issue,” Paul said of the clear Republican front-runner during an interview on Fox News’s “Hannity.”

{mosads}Paul said Trump has been a “progressive Democrat” most of his adult life and suggested he was a Republican because he felt he had a better shot at that nomination.

“I believe he’s pretending to be conservative because of this sort of desire to be all things Trump, all things to all people, but I don’t believe it’s genuine or sincere,” Paul said.

The Kentucky senator has previously called Trump “a disaster” and “the consummate insider,” hitting the businessman for his previous support of bank bailouts and government stimulus.

“I don’t think there’s anything conservative about him. I think he’s selling us a bill of goods. So I think we need to be very careful that we don’t succumb to celebrity,” Paul said Thursday.

Trump held his lead in Iowa in a Quinnipiac University poll released Friday that shows Paul tied for eighth place.