Jeb Bush is dismissing talk of Donald Trump pivoting on immigration as “all a game.”
“I don’t know what to believe about a guy who doesn’t believe in things. I mean, he doesn’t. … This is all a game,” Bush said in an interview with WABC’s Rita Cosby on Thursday.
Over the last week, the GOP presidential nominee has made a series of comments suggesting he is open to softening his stance on immigration. But Bush, who lost the party’s nomination to Trump earlier this year and hasn’t endorsed him, said knowing what Trump really believes is hard.
{mosads}“Well, I can only say that whatever his views are this morning, they might change this afternoon, and they were different than they were last night, and they’ll be different tomorrow,” Bush said. “So I can’t comment on his views, because his views are — they seem to be ever, ever changing, depending on what crowd he’s in front of.”
Trump launched his campaign off a promise to deport all of the estimated 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally, but he has said in recent days that some could be allowed to stay.
He said Wednesday his administration would “work with” those who came to America illegally years ago if they haven’t committed other crimes. And Trump has said it would be “very hard” to deport someone who has already built a life in the U.S.
Critics say that stance is identical to that of Bush, whom Trump slammed during the GOP primaries for not being tough enough on illegal immigration.
Bush said Trump’s comments are just those of a “typical politician” who wants votes.
“Sounds like a typical politician, by the way, where you get in front of one crowd and say one thing, and then say something else to another crowd that may want to hear a different view,” Bush said. “All the things that Donald Trump railed against, he seems to be morphing into. It’s kind of disturbing.
“That’s what politicians do in this country. That’s what Trump is trying to do right now. I find it abhorrent,” he said.