This New Jeb Bush Ad Calls Donald Trump A Jerk

Has Jeb Bush finally found his voice? It's been a rocky campaign for the former Florida governor, who has spent gobs of money but not necessarily seen the results to match up, but his campaign clearly hopes to change all that with a new ad. Released Thursday, Bush attacks Donald Trump in the ad, which goes so far as to call Trump a jerk.

In many ways, the ad says what many of us are probably (read: hopefully) thinking. It starts with a clip from a campaign event in which Bush says, "Just one other thing, I've got to get this off my chest: Donald Trump is a jerk." Much of the rest of the brief, minute-long ad shows news clips and video footage that attempts to explain why Trump is a jerk. For instance, there's footage of Trump seemingly mocking a New York Times journalist with a disability. The ad undoubtedly focuses on this instance. It shows a Bush supporter who met with the candidate because his son has a similar disability, and therefore, he supports Bush over Trump. It also gives examples of Bush's political work to support Americans with disabilities. Toward the end of the ad, Bush delivers a call to action of sorts: "What kind of person would you want to have in the presidency...? At what point do we say, 'Enough of this?'"

The ad is aptly titled "Enough," and it was released just hours before Bush and Trump were set to join each other on stage, along with five other candidates, in the sixth Republican primary debate, the first debate of 2016. The ad also comes at a pivotal time in the campaign for Bush: He has failed to post impressive poll numbers compared with some of his opponents (including Trump) so far, and his campaign announced around the start of the year that it would be switching up its strategy. The Bush campaign decided to reduce its spend on TV ads in favor of sending more staffers to primary hotspots, like Iowa and South Carolina.

This ad isn't the first time that Bush has said something negative about Trump. On the contrary, it's actually more of a highlight reel showing several times that he has already attacked Trump while out on the campaign trail. As much as Bush's strategy changes, it seems, his willingness to jab his outspoken opponent will remain steady. It remains to be seen if Bush's jabs — and those from other candidates — have any affect on Trump's standing in the polls, though. As of Thursday, the most recent Republican polls still had Trump with a double-digit lead.

Watch Bush's new campaign ad in its entirety here:

Image: Jeb Bush/YouTube