(CNN) — Donald Trump said Monday he believes Ben Carson will attack him despite the retired neurosurgeon’s pledge this weekend not to go after the billionaire businessman.
Carson said Sunday that he refuses to “get into the mud pit” with Trump and declined to respond to Trump’s criticism that he is “low energy” and weak on issues like trade and immigration. But Trump believes he can draw Carson into a fight.
“He’ll hit back, everybody hits back,” Trump said Monday as he arrived for an event here in New Hampshire. “In life, everybody hits back.”
Trump launched a barrage of attacks against Carson this weekend in a series of rallies and interviews, calling the retired neurosurgeon “weak” on immigration and not strong enough to negotiate with countries like Japan and China, charges he repeated Monday morning.
But Trump also claimed that his attacks were a “counterpunch,” despite the fact that Carson has not recently attacked Trump.
Trump has consistently claimed that he is a “counterpuncher” and only attacks other candidates when he is first attacked.
His criticism of Carson comes after a poll out last week, showing Carson pulling ahead of Trump in Iowa for the first time.
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