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"I just don't
know what did him in," Trump, who won South Carolina's
Republican primary election handily on Saturday, said in an
interview on CNN.
Trump had repeatedly made Bush the target of pointed attacks
throughout his campaign for the Republican nomination to run in
the Nov. 8 general election, labeling him "weak," "low-energy"
and "an embarrassment" to the Bush political dynasty.
On Sunday, Trump denied any role he may have played in taking
down Bush, who ended his campaign on Saturday night after a
fourth-place finish in South Carolina.
"Jeb fought very hard," the billionaire businessman said. "It
wasn't his time. That's all."
Bush, the brother of one president and the son of another, had
prided himself as the only candidate to attack Trump head-on
throughout the campaign and frequently accused him of lacking
ideas.
He appeared to take one last jab at Trump in his concession
speech on Saturday, saying: "Despite what you may have heard,
ideas matter. Policy matters."
Sounding less like his normally combative self, Trump on Sunday
credited Bush in a pair of interviews with having fought hard in
the campaign and called him "very capable."
"Those last couple of weeks he was on television so much, I was
looking, I'd say, 'Man, I've never seen anything like this,'"
Trump said on CNN.
He did, however, chide Bush for having run "brutal" negative ads
against him, saying he was "a little bit offended."
"So, you know, this is a tough business, I will tell you," the
billionaire real-estate mogul said of presidential politics.
"I think real estate in Manhattan is a lot easier."
(Reporting by Megan Cassella; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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