‘It’s Just Weird!’ Karl Rove Rips Trump for Complimenting Jon Husted’s ‘Posterior’

Longtime Republican strategist Karl Rove has been thrown for a loop by President Donald Trump’s focus on the “posterior” and athletic looks of one particular Republican senator.

During a discussion on The Brian Kilmeade Show about the midterm elections on Thursday, Rove at one point offered some criticism of Trump’s heavy-rally load, arguing Republicans and the president have been unfocused at times in their messaging.

The example he used to back this up was Trump’s odd comments about Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), which have even earned some light mockery from the vice president.

“I’d feel a lot better if there was a deliberate strategy where they said, look, this is the message we’re going to deliver and we’re gonna deliver this message so that nothing else gets covered. But he goes off and starts talking about the posterior of Sen. Jon Husted and I’m thinking, what kind of a message is that?” a perplexed Rove said.

Kilmeade was amused by Trump’s “unorthodox” approach and jokingly asked if former President George W. Bush, whom Rove worked under at the White House, would take the same approach.

“No! No! I mean, what you want to have when you plan these events, you want to know the message,” Rove said.

Kilmeade argued Trump’s point in talking about Husted’s “a*s” was to sell that he is a strong “athlete” to voters.

“Promise me this, you’re never going to comment adversely, favorably on my posterior. It’s just weird. It’s just weird! Come on! The president of the United States [says], he’s got a great a*s. I mean, please!” Rove told Kilmeade.

Trump has spoken multiple times about the looks of Husted, saying earlier this month he “examined” the man’s body.

“I looked at his a*s and I looked at the whole – and then I looked at his hands. Look at his hands. He’s got these, like, claws. And I got it. You are a great athlete. I didn’t know that because he doesn’t talk about that. Congratulations. Now, they finally know. That was very good,” the president said at a rally.

Watch above via The Brian Kilmeade Show.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report.

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