Jindal: Trump Has No Problem with Big Government, as Long as He's Running It

During an interview on the FOX Business Network’s Varney & Co., former GOP presidential candidate and former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal explained why he takes issue with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.

“I think there are several things wrong with Donald Trump,” Jindal said. “You’ve got a man who says everything is negotiable… everything’s not negotiable. We need a conservative right now to apply our conservative principles to rescue the American Dream from the mess that President Obama has made. When Trump says everything is negotiable what does that mean? Does that mean our Second Amendment rights are negotiable? Does that mean religious liberties are negotiable?”

Jindal argues that Trump is not a true conservative.

“I don’t think he truly, in his core, believes in smaller government,” Jindal said. “I think he has no problem with big government, as long as he’s the one running it. You’ve seen that in his policy prescriptions whether it’s on healthcare… he wants a government paying for everybody’s healthcare, negotiating directly with healthcare providers instead of trusting the market. You’ve seen it in his approach to eminent domain and a number of issues. This is not a man who is committed to conservative principles. So my beef with him is not the fact that he’s willing to negotiate on the margins to get things done. My beef with him is that at his core it doesn’t feel like he’s got conservative principles.”

However, the former governor of Louisiana said he would support whoever the Republican nominee for president is—even if it is Donald Trump.

“I’m absolutely supporting our nominee,” he said. “We cannot afford four years of Hillary Clinton. Obama’s made a mess of this country. We cannot afford four more years in a direction where more people are dependent on government… I don’t think he’ll [Trump] be the nominee, but yes, I’m going to support the Republican nominee.”