Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump isn’t shy about giving out advice – or a campaign rival’s cell phone number.
Campaigning in Bluffton, S.C., Trump on Tuesday gave out Sen. Lindsey Graham’s phone number during a televised speech, apparently in retaliation for Graham calling Trump the "world’s biggest jackass" on "CBS This Morning" earlier in the day.
In his speech, Trump said that Graham, a South Carolina Republican and a longshot 2016 GOP White House contender, once begged him to put in a good word for him with the crew of the Fox News weekly television morning show "Fox & Friends."
"Lindsey Graham says to me ‘Please, please, whatever you can do,’" Trump said. "I’m saying to myself ‘What’s this guy? A beggar? He’s like begging me to help him with ‘Fox & Friends.’"
Trump added: "He gave me his number and I found the card. I wrote the number down. I don’t know if it’s the right number."
He then gave out the number. "Let’s try it," Trump said. "Give it a shot. Your local politician. He won’t fix anything, but at least he’ll talk to you."
Graham campaign manager Christian Ferry, in a statement, said "The two people most excited about Donald Trump’s candidacy are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton."
"Because of Trump’s bombastic and ridiculous campaign, we aren’t talking about Obama’s horrible deal with Iran or Hillary Clinton’s plans to continue Obama’s failed national security agenda," Ferry added.
Graham, in Tuesday’s CBS interview, indicated that he’s grown tired of Trump’s campaign antics.
"The world is falling apart. We’re becoming Greece. The ayatollah’s on the verge of having a nuclear weapon and you’re slandering anybody and everybody to stay in the news," Graham said, referring to Trump’s weekend caustic remarks about Sen. John McCain’s military service in Vietnam. "You know, run for president, but don’t be the world’s biggest jackass."
William Douglas: 202-383-6026, @williamgdouglas