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Trump mocks Rubio, Romney

Donald Trump suggested on Friday that 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney will eventually endorse Marco Rubio. So the billionaire launched a broadside on both.

Minutes after holding a press conference announcing Chris Christie’s endorsement, Trump warned the Fort Worth, Texas, crowd he was going to “talk a little bit about the competition.”

“Let’s talk about our lightweight senator from Florida, who’s losing big in the polls,” Trump said, alluding to Rubio, whom he called a “nervous basket case.”

“You had to see him backstage. He was putting on makeup with a trowel,” Trump recalled, referencing Thursday's debate, as the crowd burst into laughter. “I don’t wanna say that. I will not say that he was trying to cover up his ears. I will not say that. He was just trying to cover up — he was just trying to cover up the sweat that pours…Did you ever see a guy sweat like this?”

Trump hailed a recent debate moment in which Christie embarrassed Rubio for repeating a line that President Barack Obama knows exactly what he’s doing, calling it “one of the great prosecutions I’ve ever seen.”

“I watched Chris take a man apart, and I looked at him and honestly I thought he was going to die — Rubio,” he said. “He was so scared, like a little frightened puppy, and he kept saying the Obama phrase over and over.”

Trump went on a Twitter tirade Friday morning attacking Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. But he misspelled a few words, prompting Rubio to ridicule the businessman as he read Trump’s tweets aloud during his own rally in Dallas. Trump called Rubio a “leightweight chocker” before deleting his tweets and reposting them with correct spellings.

The business magnate said he watched Rubio choke when he gave his State of the Union response to Obama in 2013 and again when Christie challenged him in the debate.

“But the one time I’m right next to him and I looked at the puddle on the ground and I said what is that? What is it? I wanted to know what is that. But this time, this wise guy, this lightweight is going over and all of a sudden he’s being drained and he goes like this, remember?” Trump said, mocking Rubio. “I said where is he? And then he comes back with water.”

Moments later, after calling Rubio a “nasty guy” and a “baby” in addition to suggesting Cruz is smarter and tougher than the Florida senator, he held up an open bottle of water and declared "it's Rubio!" Then he poured out some water and pretended to down the rest before he tossed it off stage.

Trump said Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney will probably endorse Rubio, lacing into the man who earlier this week speculated that Trump’s tax returns may contain a “bombshell.”

Trump slammed Romney for not only losing the 2012 election to Obama but running “one of the worst campaigns in the history of politics. He should have beaten Obama easily and for two months he disappeared.”

Romney was “like a lost soul” during a span in which Obama made a number of public appearances, Trump said before blasting Romney for challenging him on his tax returns. The former Massachusetts governor told Fox News he released his tax returns in January 2012 and said voters deserve to the see Rubio, Cruz and especially Trump’s.

“Actually, if you know the real story, Harry Reid shamed him and made him look like a baby. And Harry Reid pushed him and pushed him and really made him look so stupid and weak,” Trump said.

Trump actually endorsed Romney during the last cycle — on Friday he said he knew Romney would lose when we “walked like a penguin” — and he supported John McCain in 2008.

“I supported John McCain and we lost. I supported Mitt Romney and we lost,” he said. “This time I said I’m gonna do it myself, OK?”