As Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal falls further behind in the race for the GOP 2016 presidential nomination, he's unleashed a brazen - and slightly bizarre - attack on frontrunner Donald Trump, even daring to invoke the movie Anchorman.
Jindal devoted his entire speech Thursday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. to attacking Trump, calling him "shallow," "a narcissist," and "an egomaniac."
Jindal drove home the point on Trump's ego, referring to Trump's campaign as "a carnival act." The same phrase was used last month by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, also running for the Republican nomination, in a speech slamming Trump.
The reason @realDonaldTrump has never read the Bible is because he’s not in it. https://t.co/xbF24YXm8M— Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) September 10, 2015
Following the speech, Jindal's campaign also put out a strange ad featuring clips of Trump recounting all the groups that he loves, set to the tune of The Beatles "All You Need Is Love" and tacks on a random Anchorman clip at the end. (If the forced attempt at humor doesn't raise eyebrows, maybe the unlicensed usage of a major motion picture and a song by one of music's biggest bands ever will.)
No one loves Donald Trump like Donald Trump loves Donald Trump. https://t.co/MbjI6bSGkZhttps://t.co/I71ogyCjU7— Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) September 10, 2015
For his part, Trump didn't see much bothered by the attack.
Trump statement on Jindal in part: "I only respond to people that register more than 1% in the polls."— John Santucci (@JTSantucci) September 10, 2015
Jindal's attacks extend a pattern by many of the GOP hopeful who have found themselves focusing more on the GOP frontrunner than on any potential Democrat foe in next year's general election.
Trump and Jeb Bush, the GOP candidate most disrupted by the real estate mogul's surprise run, have been trading barbs via their respective campaigns' Instragram accounts.
Wake up Jeb supporters! A video posted by Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) on Sep 8, 2015 at 11:53am PDT
Who would you trust to #stopirandeal? A video posted by Jeb Bush (@jebbush) on Sep 8, 2015 at 2:06pm PDT
Rand Paul has similarly attacked Trump as have Ben Carson and Scott Walker.