REUTERS/Nancy Wiechec
Donald Trump.
Ahead of Trump's Monday-night event in New Hampshire, Union Leader publisher Joseph McQuaid wrote an editorial titled: "Trump campaign insults NH voters' intelligence."
"He reminds us of the grownup bully 'Biff' in the 'Back to the Future' movie series," McQuaid wrote, while declaring that his state would reject Trump's campaign.
"Trump has shown himself to be a crude blowhard with no clear political philosophy and no deeper understanding of the important and serious role of president of the United States than one of the goons he lets rough up protesters in his crowds," he wrote.
Trump responded to the op-ed in an interview with WMUR News 9. During the blistering six-minute exchange, Trump called McQuaid a "lowlife" and said the Union Leader was a "failing" newspaper, among other things.
"This man is absolutely terrible. And he's even told me the paper's doing absolutely terribly," Trump said.
Trump said McQuaid had asked him to play golf, but he turned the publisher down.
"I said, 'I can't play golf. It takes too long. I'm not going to be able to spend a whole day playing golf,'" Trump recalled. "He said, 'How about lunch?' Just recently we had lunch at his country club where he showed me around to everybody, to people that were friends of his. He's just a bad guy."
He added: "I never thought he'd stoop to these levels where he'd do an editorial after everything that he would ask me to do."
The real-estate mogul said the op-ed was revenge for not participating in a Union Leader-backed presidential forum. Trump further accused New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), whom the newspaper endorsed, of colluding with the Union Leader on the editorial.
"This is the way Chris is. I know Chris very well, known him a long time. And he's the one that got McQuaid to do this. There's no question in my mind," Trump said as he tore into Christie's gubernatorial record, including the so-called Bridgegate scandal.
"The state's a disaster. Among the highest taxes - I think actually the highest taxes - in the United States," Trump said of New Jersey. "It's the worst in the United States. It's No. 50 out of 50 - it's last in terms of economic development, jobs, et cetera, et cetera. The state is a disaster."