Bill O’Reilly on Tuesday gave Donald Trump a little advice: To win the GOP nomination, you’ll have to be “a bit kinder and more mature” and, by all means, if you’re going to attack Sen. Marco Rubio, try to make it a little less personal and a little more policy-based. “I didn’t mind the ‘Gang of Eight’ stuff; it’s calling him a ‘clown’—that’s not presidential,” O’Reilly told Trump, a reference to recent comments that the GOP front-runner made about Rubio and his past (and since-abandoned) efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform through the Senate.
On Wednesday morning, Trump seemed to have taken the Fox News host’s advice to heart—well, at least the small sliver of it he wanted to hear, that is.
Trump’s tweets were the latest salvos in his growing feud with Rubio, who is currently enjoying his moment in the GOP spotlight at the same time that the Donald is trying desperately to prolong his own. The spat appeared to begin last week after Trump called Rubio a “kid” during a CNN interview and blasted his attendance record in the Senate.
Rubio later responded with his own critical assessment of his rival that only looks more accurate with each passing Trump tantrum. “He really never talks about issues and can’t have more than a 10-second sound bite on any key issue,” Rubio said during an interview with a Kentucky sports radio station. “And I think he’s kind of been exposed a little bit over the last seven days, and he’s a very touchy and insecure guy and so that’s how he reacts, and people can see through it.”
Speaking of the billionaire’s empty bluster and tendency to overreact: His appearance on the O’Reilly Factor on Tuesday marked the end of his latest boycott of Fox News, which Trump had promised last week would continue for the “foreseeable future.” In the end, though, it lasted six days.
