Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump shifted tactics on Thursday while on the campaign trail in New Hampshire, hammering his GOP rivals less and the current holder of the White House more.
"We have a president who can't get anybody to do anything," Trump said during a rally at Great Bay Community College in Portsmouth, N.H., according to The Hill.
Trump continued to hit President Obama on the issue of leadership. "Here's the problem - nobody wants to make a deal," Trump said. "What's missing is a leader. It's crazy what we're allowing to happen just because our leaders are incompetent. Washington is gridlocked and nothing good is going to happen. Nothing good's going to happen again if you people vote in more of these politicians."
Trump also criticized Obama on his policies, including "lopsided" trade deals and the Affordable Care Act, which he plans to overturn as president. "ObamaCare is out of control," he said. "A lot of people forget about the $5 billion website. We are going to terminate it and replace it with something great. How about your deductibles? You have to be dead before you can use them. You have to have a 14-year, slow-moving disease just to use them."
Although Trump has never been shy about attacking Obama, it marks a shift in his standard campaign trail rhetoric, which has often focused on insulting his GOP rivals. He did, however, return to talking about himself.
"Every once in a while, you like to brag a little big," Trump said, Time reported, adding, "I happen to be underrated, by the way. It's very good to be underrated."
In recent polling, Trump leads in New Hampshire by more than double the points of Marco Rubio, who is in second place. According to an average of recent polls compiled by RealClear Politics, Trump sits at 32 percent support. Rubio is in second at 15 percent, followed by Cruz at 12.6 percent, Kasich at 11.2 percent and Bush at 9.8 percent.
Trump's choice to not talk about the other Republican candidates vying for the White House may reflect his sensitivities to the negative reactions to his claim that Ted Cruz did not win the Iowa caucuses, but rather "stole" them.
"Ted Cruz didn't win Iowa, he stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!" Trump said in a Twitter post Wednesday morning. "Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified," he tweeted in a follow-up.
For his part, Cruz shot back, mocking Trump for his "Trumpertantrum," which caught on, on social media.
"It is no surprise that Donald is throwing yet another temper tantrum - or if you like, another Trumpertantrum," Cruz said at a press conference in New Hampshire, according to National Review. "It seems his reaction to everything is to throw a fit, and I understand that Donald finds it very hard to lose. But at the end of the day, the people of Iowa spoke."
