Jeb Bush really didn’t like Trump’s ‘I love Hispanics!’ tweet

Jeb Bush gave his first full post-mortem-campaign interview to a Dutch newspaper, and he’s back to criticizing Donald Trump.

Not that it was just limited to Trump, now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Bush’s critique expanded to the party, the media, the system and even the voters themselves.

The interview has been translated from Dutch, so the language of the quotes may be confusing.

“Voters no longer accept authority, politicians, media. That these institutions have produced themselves. Campaigning in 2016, talking to voters, is very different than before,” Bush said. “You should now play 3-D chess. ... A conversation about differences is difficult, if you do not already agree on the facts.”

The interview happened the day after a Trump tweet made the rounds in the media on May 5, or Cinco de Mayo.

Bush, whose wife, Columba Bush, was born in Mexico, was highly critical of the tweet.

“What Donald Trump did, it’s so insensitive. First, not all Latinos are Mexican. Second, not all Hispanics eat tacos. Thirdly, a taco bowl is an American dish,” Bush said. “And fourth, if you’re laying next to what he said earlier about Latinos, it’s an insult. It’s like sitting behind a watermelon, and saying: I love African Americans.”

Bush said he didn’t anticipate Trump’s reach, especially in the media, which likely contributed to the downfall of his campaign.

“I saw that Trump played according to different rules than me. He got that room, the press played the game with him,” Bush said. “He was given free reign. ... A campaign never works as you estimate it beforehand, and this I certainly had not anticipated.”

Additionally, Bush said the only way to get on Fox News during Trump’s campaign was to comment on Trump’s actions in interviews with Megyn Kelly, who hosts the Kelly File on Fox.

Bush also said his fellow Republican candidates played a role because no one else fought Trump the way he did.

“I have said from the beginning what I thought of him. But no one else was doing it, that surprised me. Lindsey Graham tried, Rick Perry a little bit. But those candidates responded because Trump attacked them,” Bush said. “Nobody wanted to participate, they had to do so. That is, if you, like me, believe that the party of Lincoln, Reagan and my father is worth fighting for. They should have said something.”

The combination of Trump, the media and the candidates have produced a political system that no longer benefits the needs of the country, Bush argued.

“Parties are no longer anything but a vehicle for the ambitions of their leaders,” he said. “Politics are a personality show.”

This story was originally published May 17, 2016 at 11:56 AM with the headline "Jeb Bush really didn’t like Trump’s ‘I love Hispanics!’ tweet."