President Donald Trump on Monday sounded off on the hundreds of millions of dollars 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg is spending against him.
"Mini Mike Bloomberg is spending a lot of money on False Advertising," Trump tweeted, claiming in light of Bloomberg's health care ads that the president "saved" protections for those pre-existing conditions so they cannot be denied insurance by providers.
"I will always protect your Pre-Existing Conditions, the Dems will not!" Trump wrote.
While Trump for years has claimed to protect those protections, his administration is currently backing a federal lawsuit that would render all of the Affordable Care Act invalid, eliminating those protections if its backers are victorious. Republicans, with Trump's support, also led a failed effort in 2017 to repeal former President Barack Obama's signature health care law, though the GOP was later successful in eliminating the law's individual mandate penalty through the party's 2017 tax bill.
Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, responded to Trump soon after on Twitter, saying, "Glad to see you're watching our ads, @realDonaldTrump."
"I know management isn't your strong suit, so perhaps you don't know your Justice Department supports a suit that would undermine protections for pre-existing conditions," Bloomberg tweeted. "Now that you know, why not ask them to drop the suit?"
In Bloomberg's health care ad, footage of Trump calling Obamacare a "complete and total disaster" and saying it should be allowed to "implode" is played. Bloomberg's health care plan calls for a public option and a cap on health care costs.
Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman ranked by Forbes as the eighth richest American with a fortune in excess of $53 billion, has emerged as the biggest anti-Trump spender in the Democratic primary, blanketing the airwaves with messaging hitting the president. Last week, Bloomberg's campaign passed the $200 million mark in total advertising spending as the Bloomberg and Trump campaigns announced dueling Super Bowl ads worth about $10 million apiece to air during next month's championship game
This weekend, Bloomberg did not rule out spending $1 billion of his fortune on the 2020 presidential race even if he is not the nominee.
"Number one priority is to get rid of Donald Trump," Bloomberg told Reuters on Saturday. "I’m spending all my money to get rid of Trump."
A late entrant to the Democratic presidential primary, he is bypassing early voting states and instead focusing his campaign on Super Tuesday on March 3 and states that vote later in the primary calendar.
