<p>In a clandestine meeting with 100 Jeb Bush donors, George W. Bush said some nasty things about his brother&rsquo;s biggest rival. It isn&rsquo;t frontrunner Donald Trump, whose repeated insults have taken a toll on Jeb Bush. And it isn&rsquo;t Jeb&rsquo;s former understudy Marco Rubio. ;According to Bush, Senator Ted Cruz poses the biggest threat to his brother&rsquo;s campaign.</p>
<p>After comparatively pleasant words about the other GOP candidates, Bush surprised the audience by launching into a tirade against Ted Cruz. ;&ldquo;I just don&rsquo;t like that guy,&rdquo; said the former president to a shocked audience. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was like, &lsquo;Holy shit, did he just say that?&rsquo;&rdquo; said one of the donors. &ldquo;I remember looking around and seeing that other people were also looking around surprised.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Bush looks down on Cruz&rsquo;s alleged alliance with Donald Trump. The two stood together last month as they co-hosted a rally in protest of the Iran deal. While the Donald doesn&#8217;t think twice before criticizing just about anyone, Cruz has somehow remained immune. ;In the words of one of the donors, Bush &ldquo;found it &lsquo;opportunistic&rsquo; that Cruz was sucking up to Trump and just expecting all of his support to come to him in the end.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>This enmity between Bush and Cruz isn&rsquo;t new. In a book published just this year, Ted Cruz tore apart Bush&rsquo;s record, complained about his foreign policy, and blamed the Bush administration for allowing &ldquo;bigger government and excessive spending and new entitlements.&rdquo;</p>
<p>One donor suspects that Bush feels insulted by Cruz&rsquo;s takeover of Texas Republicans: &ldquo;He sort of looks at this like Cruz is doing it all for his own personal gain, and that&rsquo;s juxtaposed against a family that&rsquo;s been all about public service and doing it for the right reasons. He&rsquo;s frustrated to have watched Cruz basically hijack the Republican Party of Texas and the Republican Party in Washington.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>Not only is Cruz the senator of Bush&rsquo;s home state, he is also Bush&rsquo;s former employee. While it may seem that Marco Rubio is more of a threat, Bush warned the audience not to doubt Ted Cruz&rsquo;s strength, noting that Cruz will be a formidable opponent in the South. ;</p>
<p>Bush&rsquo;s criticism of Marco Rubio, on the other hand, was far more polite. After a few compliments, Bush said, ;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a young, first-term senator; I&rsquo;m not sure if that qualifies you to be president. Of course, if he wins [the nomination], I&rsquo;ll be back here next year telling you that doesn&rsquo;t matter.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Despite what donors are saying, Bush spokesperson Freddy Ford rejected the idea that Cruz will be Jeb&rsquo;s main obstacle. &ldquo;The first words out of President Bush&rsquo;s mouth last night were that Jeb is going to earn the nomination, win the election, and be a great President,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He does not view Senator Cruz as Governor Bush&rsquo;s most serious rival.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>Other than unloading on Ted Cruz, Bush spoke of his brother&rsquo;s qualifications and highlighted the differences between the two Bushes, making sure to focus on immigration (remember that George W. Bush was the last Republican to win a big percentage of the Latino vote). ;</p>
<p>The ;former president has appeared at four of his brother&rsquo;s fundraisers during the past month. He is scheduled to appear with his father in Houston this weekend at another of Jeb&#8217;s ;functions, during which donors will have the rare chance to see two former US presidents in the same room. ;Bush made it a point, however, to mention that he will not be joining his brother on the campaign trail. &ldquo;He wants to be helpful and supportive like any brother would be. But he said, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re not going to see a lot of me,&rsquo;&rdquo; said one of the donors. ;</p>
<p>Cruz&rsquo;s only response to all this was a friendly statement issued on Monday: ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I have great respect for George W Bush, and was proud to work on his 2000 campaign and in his administration,&rdquo; Cruz said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no surprise that President Bush is supporting his brother and attacking the candidates he believes pose a threat to his campaign. I have no intention of reciprocating. I met my wife Heidi working on his campaign, and so I will always be grateful to him.&rdquo;</p>
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