Former Florida governor and GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush returned to the spotlight on Sunday to offer President Trump some unsolicited advice.
When asked by “Facing South Florida” host Jim DeFede about Trump’s administration so far, Bush praised the president on his cabinet picks, as well as the economic optimism he’s created for the country.
But the compliments stopped there, as Bush went on to criticize Trump’s unorthodox approach to the presidency.
"He's a distraction in and of himself," Bush said. "He's got a lot of work to do, and some of these things – the wiretapping and all of this stuff – is a complete distraction that makes it harder to accomplish the things I know he wants to do."
DeFede asked Bush if the president should stop tweeting -- a common criticism of the tool Trump often uses to communicate anything from press appearances to unfounded bombshell accusations like the wiretapping of Trump Tower.
“He should stop saying things that aren’t true,” Bush responded. “That are distractions from the task at hand."
Bush also said that he thinks some of Trump’s more radical claims, most shared via Twitter, diminish the office of the presidency.
“I hope he learns that it’s one thing to do it as a candidate where you’re garnering a huge following on Twitter and people go to massive rallies where people clearly love him,” Bush said. “Another thing is, when you’re the president, your words have consequences that go way beyond that.”
Bush, whose own presidential hopes fizzled out about a year ago when he dropped out of the race after losing the South Carolina primary, also commented on Trump’s “fake news” claims, saying he learned a lot about the way people consume their news during his campaign.
“It’s not necessarily fake news,” Bush said. “It’s that people customize their news to validate what they believe and it makes them increasingly less tolerant of other people’s views that may have a different set of facts. That is dangerous for our democracy.”
Bush also stated that he has no regrets about running for president but doesn’t know if he would ever run again, although saying he doesn’t “rule out anything.”