WASHINGTON:Donald Trump taunted George W Bush yesterday (Monday) ahead of the former president's first appearance on the campaign trail in support of his brother, Jeb Bush.
Mr Trump said Mr Bush entering the fray would make him "fair game" for attacks about the Iraq war and his record on the economy.
Mr Bush was due to join his brother on stage last night at a rally in South Carolina, the third state to vote in the race to choose a Republican nominee for the White House.
He has already raised money for his sibling at private events for donors. But he had remained publicly silent until a television advertisement was released in South Carolina in recent days. In it he praised his brother as a "leader with a good heart".
Early in his campaign Jeb Bush avoided using the family name as much as possible, saying he wanted to run as "my own man".
In New Hampshire, the second state to vote, he relented and appeared publicly alongside his mother Barbara Bush, the former First Lady.
Mr Trump said: "Funny that Jeb didn't want help from his family in his failed campaign, and didn't even want to use his last name. Then mommy, now brother."
The billionaire property mogul warned George W Bush to be "careful".
He added: "Now that George Bush is campaigning for Jeb is he fair game for questions about the World Trade Center, Iraq war and economic collapse?" Mr Trump also accused Jeb Bush of being a "hypocrite, liar, and another clueless politician".
South Carolina was crucial to George W Bush in 2000 when he won the state, going on to capture the Republican nomination and the presidency.
His father George HW Bush also won the state on the way to the nomination, and the White House, in 1988.
The Bush family is still popular in a state which has eight military bases, and where around one quarter of people voting to choose the Republican nominee are serving, or have served, in the military. Lindsey Graham, the influential South Carolina senator, said: "The Bush name is golden in my state."
Polls show Jeb Bush is in fourth place in the state behind front-runner Mr Trump, Ted Cruz, the Texas senator, and Marco Rubio, senator for Florida.
A good result is crucial to Mr Bush's campaign after he finished sixth in Iowa and fourth in New Hampshire.
Groups supporting Mr Bush are expected to spend $12?million (pounds 8.3?million) on television and radio advertisements in South Carolina, which goes to the polls on Saturday, many of them attacking other candidates. One advertisement strings together clips of Mr Trump's vulgar language and asks: "Is this the type of man we want our children exposed to?"
In an acrimonious televised debate in South Carolina at the weekend Mr Trump criticised George W Bush for making a "big fat mistake" invading Iraq in 2003, for "lying about weapons of mass destruction", and for "not keeping America safe" on Sept 11, 2001.
Jeb Bush revealed that Mr Trump refused to shake hands, as is customary, after the debate.
Mr Bush said: "I think he saw me coming to do it and he walked away."