--- title: How Jeb Bush Finally Landed a Punch on Donald Trump description: Jeb Bush attacks Donald Trump using a weedy, Constitutional power called eminent domain. canonical: https://time.com/4212322/jeb-bush-donald-trump-eminent-domain/ author: Haley Sweetland Edwards article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-08T20:55:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:41:07.112Z article:section: Politics og:title: How Bush Finally Landed a Punch on Trump og:description: He got a crowd to boo Trump, but will it be enough? og:url: https://time.com/4212322/jeb-bush-donald-trump-eminent-domain/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc1d6240a5425e002/69887cab2dce01ad819e7b70/jeb-bush-donald-trump-eminent-domain.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Republican presidential candidates Jeb Bush (L) and Donald Trump talk following the Republican presidential debate at St. Anselm College February 6, 2016 in Manchester, New Hampshire. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Bush Finally Landed a Punch on Trump twitter:description: He got a crowd to boo Trump, but will it be enough? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc1d6240a5425e002/69887cab2dce01ad819e7b70/jeb-bush-donald-trump-eminent-domain.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Bush Finally Landed a Punch on Trump > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=018e3536-e8f8-4402-91b2-9893770eca24&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Watch the Eighth GOP Debate in Under 5 Minutes [Watch (HLS stream): Watch the Eighth GOP Debate in Under 5 Minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/q8BWIQvc.m3u8) (4:23)  _Published 2016-02-07_  by [Haley Sweetland Edwards](https://time.com/author/haley-sweetland-edwards/)  ## Haley Sweetland Edwards Feb 8, 2016 8:55 PM UTC  by [Haley Sweetland Edwards](https://time.com/author/haley-sweetland-edwards/)  ## Haley Sweetland Edwards Feb 8, 2016 8:55 PM UTC After failing for months to land a punch against Donald Trump, former Florida governor Jeb Bush appears at last to have discovered the real estate mogul’s kryptonite: a weedy, constitutional power called eminent domain, which allows for the seizure of private property for public use. At the Republican debate Saturday night, Bush accused Trump of attempting, albeit unsuccessfully, to use the power of eminent domain to [seize an elderly woman’s home in Atlantic City](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-time-donald-trumps-empire-took-on-a-stubborn-widow--and-lost/2015/09/09/f9cb287e-5660-11e5-b8c9-944725fcd3b9%5Fstory.html) to expand a casino parking lot. At first, Trump rolled his eyes at the accusation. “Jeb wants to be a tough guy,” he said, at least three times, before Bush dropped a solid retort. “How tough it is to take away property from an elderly woman?” he asked. The crowd roared, cheering Bush and booing Trump, in one of the tensest moments of the two-and-a-half-hour debate. The battle over eminent domain has continued ever since, in the days and hours before the New Hampshire primary kicks off Tuesday. On the campaign trail, Jeb has continued to hammer Trump for stealing from old ladies, while Trump has pivoted slightly, accusing Bush of being both confused about what eminent domain is and a hypocrite. “Eminent domain is a very important thing,” Trump explained on ABC’s _This Week_ on Sunday. “Jeb Bush doesn’t understand what it means.” Trump then pointed out that Bush’s brother, former President George W. Bush, used Texas’ eminent-domain laws to seize private property to build the Texas Rangers’ stadium near Dallas. So where does all this mud-slinging leave us? The short answer is that the issue of eminent domain is tricky terrain for Republicans. On the one hand, many conservatives tend to be hard-line on private-property rights. From Adam Smith to Ayn Rand, a citizen’s right to private property is considered almost sacred. But on the other hand, many conservatives tend to be enthusiastic about private development projects — from luxury condominiums and strip malls to new football stadiums. If liberals generally shudder at the idea of paving over a poor neighborhood to build a big-box store, state and local Republicans can generally be counted on to offer their support. So how do Republican lawmakers square that circle? It all comes down to _when_ it’s O.K. to force someone to give up their private property. The [Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/eminent%5Fdomain) leaves some ambiguity. It says that private property shall not “be taken for public use, without just compensation.” So what constitutes “public use”? The most clear-cut examples are government facilities and government-run infrastructure, like post offices, schools, police stations, highways and sewage systems. But then it gets into a slightly more gray area. Should private railroads, wind farms, telephone companies or cable providers be able to use the power of eminent domain to expand their networks to serve more of the public and therefore access more paying customers? While most legal experts generally say yes, individual cases are often contentious. For example, in the past few years, property owners in Nebraska sued the Canadian oil company that was trying to build the controversial Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast, on the grounds that the company was abusing the power of eminent domain to seize their land. (A Nebraska court eventually sided with the oil company.) In the past 60 years, the definition of “public use” has also begun to expand to include, for example, municipal development projects that seize “blighted” areas, and hand them over to private developers to build new housing projects, strips malls or commercial centers. The idea, which remains controversial, is that these new private developments or centers serve the public interest. Which brings us back to the battle between Trump and Bush. Bush accuses Trump of abusing eminent domain in his attempt in the 1990s to expand his Atlantic City casino parking lot. On this, Bush is almost definitely correct: most legal scholars, including the [New Jersey superior court judge who eventually ruled](http://articles.philly.com/1998-07-21/news/25737322%5F1%5Feminent-domain-trump-hotels-donald-trump) on the case, argue that a _private_ casino parking lot doesn’t even remotely fall under the category of “public use.” Trump, meanwhile, accuses the Bush family — namely, former President George W. — of [abusing eminent domain in building the Rangers’ stadium](http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/02/08/donald-trump-jr-bush-family-used-eminent-domain-for-texas-rangers-stadium/) in Arlington, Texas. But that, again, gets back to [that gray area of how we define “public use.”](http://digital.law.washington.edu/dspace-law/bitstream/handle/1773.1/1342/9WJLTA331.pdf?sequence=5) Private-property advocacy organizations, like the Institute for Justice, say [it’s definitely not O.K.](http://ij.org/action-post/foul-ball-ten-cities-that-used-eminent-domain-for-sports-stadiums/) to force people out of their homes to build a stadium of any kind — even if the majority of the city or state vote in favor of it. They point at plans to build a new, 25,000-seat major-league soccer stadium in Miami, the beating heart of Jeb Bush’s state, that is expected to require the destruction of [a day care, an apartment building and several houses](http://ij.org/action-post/foul-ball-ten-cities-that-used-eminent-domain-for-sports-stadiums/). On Fox News on Monday morning, Bush simply avoided the subject of stadiums entirely. Instead, he bragged that the Florida legislature passed an amendment strengthening private-property rights against eminent-domain claims. “Donald Trump could not do what he tried to do in Atlantic City in Florida, and that’s the right thing,” [Bush said](http://video.foxnews.com/v/4744020998001/bush-people-want-someone-with-a-steady-hand-as-president/?playlist%5Fid=930909787001#sp=show-clips). “Eminent domain should be used for infrastructure, for public right of way — for things it has always been used for, that’s more than appropriate, but not to take away a home from an elderly woman so you can build a stinking parking lot for limos for your casino,” Bush added. “That’s just, you know, not the appropriate use of police powers of the government.” So far, Trump has proved to be the Teflon candidate, emerging unscathed from a hail of attacks on his less-than-conservative record, “New York values” and his mercurial temperament. The latest polls in New Hampshire show him drawing nearly a third of Republican support in the state, well ahead of Marco Rubio at 15%, Ted Cruz at 13%, John Kasich at 11% and Bush at 10%. There’s perhaps no reason to believe that Bush’s eminent-domain offensive will have any effect on Trump’s enduring popularity. But Saturday night was also the first time a Republican crowd at a Republican debate booed Trump for an extended period of time. With the New Hampshire primary less than 24 hours away, the suggestion that Trump does not have respect for private property could still make a dent. ## Transcript Ladies and gentleman, the republican candidates.. And Dr. Be Carson please come out on the stage, he's standing there as well. Dr. Carson. [ APPLAUSE ] And Donald Trump. [ APPLAUSE ] I like Mark Rubeo, he's a smart person and a good guy. But he simply does not have the experience to be President of the United States. See, we have to remind people that we're Americans Before we're Republicans and Democrats. [ APPLAUSE ] Okay. The problem was it was to tear down- [ CROSSTALK ] Jeb wants to be, he wants to be a tough guy. He wants to be a tough guy. He has an amazing life story that has inspired millions, including me. When this transpired, I apologized to him then and I do so now. Ben, I'm sorry. Washington ethics basically says If it's legal, you do what you need to do in order to win. Eminent domain is an absolute necessity for a country. For our country. What Donald Trump did was use eminent domain to try to take the property of an elderly woman on the strip in Atlantic City. Let me just, he wants to be a tough guy, a lot of times, You'll have, and it doesn't work very well. A lot of times. How tough is it to take property from an elderly woman? Let me talk. Let me talk. Quiet. [ NOISE ] How tough is it? A lot of time. A lot of times. Why don't they ask Hillary Clinton why she believes that partial birth abortion, which is a gruesome procedure that's been outlawed in this country, she thinks it's a fundamental right? So, I'm pro life. But I believe there should be exceptions, rape, incest, and when the life of the mother is in danger. But I think we have to be cognizant of the fact there's a lot of people that are concerned about having a pro- life position without any exceptions. I would rather lose an election than be wrong on the issue of life. I stood up for the first time, and now for the last six years, we've defunded Planned Parenthood. Not talked about it, like they do in Washington, DC. Those are the facts. Here's the bottom line. This notion of Barack Obama doesn't know what he's doing is just not true. There it is. He knows exactly what he's doing. There it is, the memorized 25 second speech. I think we have a president, who as a president, is totally incompetent, and he doesn't know what he's doing. I think he has no idea what he's doing. And our country is going to Hell. The shame is that you would actually criticize somebody for showing up to work, plowing the streets, getting the [ UNKNOWN ] back on time when you've never been responsible for that in your entire life. 48 % of the people here in this state know someone who has abused heroin. My older sister Mariam, who was my half sister. Struggled her whole life with drug and alcohol addiction. This is an absolute epidemic. We need leadership to solve it. We don't win on the border. You look at New Hampshire with the tremendous problem we have with her heroin. Now when I say saturation carpet bombing, that's not indiscriminate That is targeted at oil facilities. It's targeted at the oil tankers. It's targeted at command and control locations. In the middle east we have people chopping the heads off Christians. I would bring back water boarding, and I'd bring back a hell of a lot worse than water boarding. We're not interrogating anybody right now. Guantanamo is being emptied by this President. We should be putting people in to Guantanamo, not emptying it out. This is a president who in the wake of Paris and in the wake of San Bernardino will not even use the words radical Islamic terrorism, much less focus on defeating the enemy. [ SOUND ] New Hampshire, please give me a chance to carry this message forward to the United States of America. And then I will come back my heart is to help you solve the problems of your state, and the problems of our nation. If you give me your vote on Tuesday I will do just that. I ask for your support on Tuesday to keep America and make America safer, stronger, and freer, thank you all very much. I am going to with the help of God and you Once again place the American people at the pinnacle with the government there to serve it. You vote for me and we will unite this party. We will grow the conservative movement. We will defeat Hillary Clinton, and we will leave our children what our parents left us, the single greatest nation in the history of all mankind. We can turn this country around if we get back to the constitution, and I will always stand with the American people. Against the bipartisan corruption of Washington. If I'm elected president, we will win, and we will win, and we will win. Thank you. 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