Karl Rove: Donald Trump A 'Joke Candidate' (VIDEO)

Karl Rove didn't hold back in sounding off on the prospect of Donald Trump running for president in the next election cycle during a recent appearance on Fox News.

Trump is mulling a campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. The billionaire and potential candidate has signaled, however, that if he runs and loses in the GOP primary that he would likely make a bid for the White House as an independent.

"His full embrace of the birther issue means that he's off there in the nutty right and is now an inconsequential candidate," said Rove of Trump's penchant for raising skepticism over whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States. "I'm shocked, the guy is smarter than this."

According to the top Republican strategist and Fox News contributor, making the birther issue "the centerpiece of his campaign means that he's just a joke candidate."

Rove made critical remarks about Trump's persistence in pushing the birther issue during an appearance on Fox News last month. Business Insider reported at the time on what he had to say:

You know, the troubling thing in the interview tonight was [Trump] said as time has gone on here, over the last couple of weeks, he has become more interested and more believing in the issue. You know, when he first brought it up, he said 'of course I accept that he's a citizen. He ought to just release the, release his birth certificate.' Different tone tonight. This is a mistake. It will marginalize him and he's falling into Barack Obama's trap. Barack Obama wants Republicans to fall into this trap because he knows it discredits us with the vast majority of the American people when they do.

In his more recent appearance on the network, Rove took aim at the idea that Trump could reveal his plans for 2012 on his reality show, "The Apprentice." He asserted, "The American people aren't going to be hiring him and certainly the Republicans are not going to be hiring him in the Republican primary."

Via ThinkProgress comes video of Rove's remarks.

WATCH:

Comments

[DMure]

10:24 AM on 05/24/2011

Rove looks like a easter ham!

[shangrolah]

02:40 AM on 04/23/2011

Karl Rove is right about Trump. But he is really only looking out for the interests of the Republican party, and its establishment-- with which he is part. In the meantime, we are all too ready to forget-- and not ask any more questions-- about Rove's role in the U.S. attorney scandals, political dirty tricks during the last election, the manipulations to take us to war, and evading campaign finance laws today. Time to start asking about these thing too:

http://www.seattlepi.com/default/article/Rove-s-dirty-tricks-Let-us-count-the-ways-1246665.php
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/white-house-watch/white-house-watched.html
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/04/a-us-attorney-apos-s-story/7416/

[Properman]

10:17 AM on 04/21/2011

Karl Rove is sweating Donald Trump's candidacy . This has all the earmarks of a news publishers dream come true.

[iafn]

01:23 PM on 04/20/2011

I love Rove's line that Trump is "falling into Barack Obama's trap"... that's brilliant! This has all been Obama's masterful political strategy the whole time! Of COURSE! lol

[goatboyslim]

09:32 AM on 04/20/2011

Trump's big sin in Rove's eyes is he won't hire Rove.

[shangrolah]

02:41 AM on 04/23/2011

if you think about it, they seem to be kindred spirits.

[CarlIII]

09:22 PM on 04/23/2011

Rove works for the Bush Cartel. Jeb will try to grab the nomination after Karl Rove Trashes all the competition. He was successful getting Palin and Newt to drop in the polls. He's sicked his rabid dog {Glen Beck} on Huckabubba. Now he's trashing Trump. His job is to set up the scenario for Prince Jeb to come to the GOP's rescue against the Black president. They are bigtime Obama haters. Easy deduction. Jeb is going to run.

[laura r]

05:17 PM on 04/19/2011

So, tell us something that we do not already know..

[jobscabin]

04:40 PM on 04/19/2011

Come on Mr. Rove. Are you trying to say that you couldn't take a foolish ego that looks good in a suit and who has a recognizable name into a winning candidate? Yeah, right. We know better.

[loanshark]

06:26 PM on 04/19/2011

LOL, He's trying to tell you that he has Jeb already ear marked for the job.

Somebody asked Karl if he would ever think about running and he said: "No, I like what I'm doing now, and besides there will always be another Bush."

Really when you think about it, why would Karl want to do anything different?

[shangrolah]

02:42 AM on 04/23/2011

Uh oh, if he were to read that comment he might take on the job just out of vanity.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/18/karl-rove-donald-trump_n_850544.html

[Hutch Hudgins]

04:29 PM on 04/19/2011

I love it! The lib's are trashing Trump! That can only mean one thing...They're afraid of him!

[Faux Really]

05:02 PM on 04/19/2011

Rove is a Lib? Did you read or listen to the interview or article? Everyone is trashing Trump. Trump will get trumped in '12.

[Hutch Hudgins]

05:18 PM on 04/19/2011

Doesn't matter. When someone starts making sense out of the non-sense,and someone makes fun of him or her...it shows they're nervous about the new voice.

[gmombarb]

05:21 PM on 04/19/2011

Trump is an idiot and so are you!!

[Hutch Hudgins]

05:36 PM on 04/19/2011

Personal attacks on me for my opinion is not cool.

[She who thinks]

04:29 PM on 04/19/2011

Karl Rove should know "jokes" as he helped george bush get appointed (elected?) twice.

[NYJedi]

03:41 PM on 04/19/2011

I'm not sure what is more depressing - that so many people are taking this seriously, or that I agree with Karl Rove on something.

[Skyjuice70]

05:41 PM on 04/19/2011

I concur.

[Pharoah Narim]

03:03 PM on 04/19/2011

The Don is making a brilliant play. By being the clown canidate and parroting Tea Party talking points...all subsequent canditates must have a different set of talking points to avoid being associated with him.

Trump's smart...I believe this is exactly what he'd doing...disarming the serious canidates before they can fire off one shot of their foolish, poison rhetoric.

[ajbiggs]

03:00 PM on 04/19/2011

This hard to say, but, Rove has atleast an inkling of common sense...even if he has no integrity or morals.

[Harbinger08]

03:32 PM on 04/19/2011

Common sense? That's putting it mildly. Rove is a diabolical mastermind who should be in a parallel universe fighting Spiderman or Batman.

[lisaman]

01:23 PM on 04/19/2011

"His full embrace of the birther issue means that he's off there in the nutty right and is now an inconsequential candidate,"

Really Karl, inconsequential. I think you feel the opposite is true if you have seen the polls. I believe you are afraid he will run Independant and cost the GOP votes, incidentally, exactly what I am hoping for!!

[Khoi Nguyen]

01:14 PM on 04/19/2011

Although he is not wrong about Trump in this instance, he still has zero credibility.

[IndianaMeg]

03:20 PM on 04/19/2011

My thoughts exactly. Thanks, Rove, for one valid contribution out of millions of effed up others.

[dmsdzinr]

01:09 PM on 04/19/2011

It is pretty bad when even Rove thinks that Trump is off the far right cliff.