The former pro wrestler says his surprise election as Minnesota governor paved the way for Donald Trump. Now he looks back “shamefully” on their past ties.
Potential Reform Party presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, greets Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, 2000. Ventura was “ecstatic” about Trump's 2016 presidential run but soon changed his mind. Twenty-five years ago Friday, the former professional wrestler Jesse “The Body” Ventura shocked America by winning the Minnesota governor’s race as a third-party candidate.
Compared to his major-party rivals, Ventura ran his campaign on a shoestring budget. Republican candidate Norm Coleman outspent him 5-1, and Democrat Skip Humphrey outspent him 3-1, according to the New York Times, which“an earth-rattling political upset that shellshocked politicians and prognosticators everywhere.” The paper described him as “a colorful mixture of affable, often amusing, bravado and plain-spoken drive.
In February 2000, barely a month after Ventura took office, Trump came to a Minnesota Reform Party fundraiser and complained about the previous night’s presidential debate, according to a. “I watched the debates last night,” Trump said. “I mean, tell me: Are these guys stiffs, or what? Give me a break!”That same month, Ventura left the Reform Party, calling it “hopelessly dysfunctional.
Ventura has since soured on Trump, especially after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. In August of this year, he wrote awith his son Tyrel likening Trump to Charles Manson, arguing that both men encouraged their followers to engage in violent activities that led to deaths.
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