President Donald Trump ridiculed former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday for his poor debate performance.
“Mini Mike Bloomberg’s debate performance tonight was perhaps the worst in the history of debates, and there have been some really bad ones,” Trump said about Bloomberg’s first attempt in the Democrat presidential primary debates on Wednesday night.
Bloomberg struggled at times to sufficiently beat back attacks from the Democrats on stage, who appeared threatened by his rise in the polls.
“He was stumbling, bumbling and grossly incompetent,” Trump said early Thursday morning. “If this doesn’t knock him out of the race, nothing will.”
Bloomberg at times hesitated and stumbled while responding to attacks from candidates and pointed questions from the NBC debate moderators.
“Not so easy to do what I did!” Trump said, referring to his dramatic debate performances in the Republican presidential primary debate performances in the 2016 election.
Prior to the debate, Trump predicted Bloomberg would not perform well on the debate stage, despite rising in the polls.
“Mini Mike Bloomberg is a LOSER who has money but can’t debate and has zero presence, you will see,” he wrote last week.
He continued, “Mini Mike is a 5’4” mass of dead energy who does not want to be on the debate stage with these professional politicians. No boxes please,” he wrote. “He hates Crazy Bernie and will, with enough money, possibly stop him. Bernie’s people will go nuts!”
Bloomberg did not use a box to stand on but was put next to Sen. Elizabeth Warren on the stage who appeared to tower above him.
“Mini Mike Bloomberg doesn’t get on the Democrat Debate Stage because he doesn’t want to – he is a terrible debater and speaker,” Trump also said in January. “If he did, he would go down in the polls even more (if that is possible!)”
Trump hosted a rally in Phoenix, Arizona on the same night as the Democrat presidential candidates took the stage.
“Mini Mike. No boxes. We call him ‘No boxes,'” Trump said during the rally. “I hear he is getting pounded tonight, you know he is in the debate. I hear they are pounding him. He spent $500 million so far and I think he has 15 points — hey, fake news, how many points does he have right now? 15?”