A joke..

Trump’s own Texas state director called him a 'joke'

He’s not the only one to diss Trump before signing on to a campaign that pays staff well.

By Ben Schreckinger

It’s not just randomly selected poll respondents who come up with mean words to describe Donald Trump. Trump’s own Texas state director recently called him “a joke.”

“I don’t know of anyone in the party who looks at him like a fellow Republican. He’s an entertainer,” Republican consultant Corbin Casteel said of Trump in an August article in the San Antonio Express-News. “I believe it’s a universal view that Donald Trump is a joke.”

Casteel is not the first Republican to disparage Trump before joining up with the businessman’s campaign, which pays staffers well.

In August, after conservative Iowa activist Sam Clovis left Rick Perry’s flailing campaign to become Trump’s national co-chairman, the Des Moines Register obtained emails in which Clovis wrote, “[Trump] left me with questions about his moral center and his foundational beliefs. ... His comments reveal no foundation in Christ, which is a big deal.”

Clovis told the paper he had changed his mind about Trump.

A campaign spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment. Casteel did not immediately return requests for comment left with his consulting firm.

Casteel's hiring as the Trump campaign’s state director was announced on Friday along with the hirings of Mike Rubino to serve as Virginia state director and Karen Giorno to serve as Florida state director. The hirings were first reported by the New York Times.