Former President Donald Trump on Friday took a shot at independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., referring to him as a “Democrat ‘Plant’” who is running to help President Joe Biden win reelection. Kennedy later fired back at the former president, calling him “unhinged.”

This particular crossing of digital swords comes after some polls showed that RFK Jr.’s candidacy could hurt Trump’s campaign more than Biden’s.

In a series of posts on X, Trump savaged Kennedy, arguing that voting for him would be a “WASTED PROTEST VOTE.”

RFK Jr. is a Democrat “Plant,” a Radical Left Liberal who’s been put in place in order to help Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the History of the United States, get Re-Elected. A Vote for Junior’ would essentially be a WASTED PROTEST VOTE, that could swing either way, but would only swing against the Democrats if Republicans knew the true story about him. Junior’ is totally Anti-Gun, an Extreme Environmentalist who makes the Green New Scammers look Conservative, a Big Time Taxer and Open Border Advocate, and Anti-Military/Vet…

In another post, he took aim at Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy’s running mate, saying she is “not a serious person.”

Page 2: His Radicalized Family will never allow him to be a Republican, and his Chief “Funder” is the V.P. Candidate that nobody ever heard of, except her ex-husband, who’s been stripped of a big chunk of cash. She puts herself down as a businesswoman, or maybe a doctor, and actually, I guess you could say that she’s right. Her business was doing surgery on her husband’s wallet! She’s more Liberal than Junior’ by far, not a serious person, and only a Pot of Cash to help get her No Chance Candidate on the Ballot…

The former president ended his tirade by bashing Kennedy over his stance on energy and climate change.

Page 3: I lived with RFK Jr. in New York and watched him convince Governor Cuomo to make Environmental moves that were outright NASTY. Upstate New York was not allowed to drill or frack as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and others ripped off New York Energy. Because of this, prices have skyrocketed all over that part of the Country, but especially Upstate New York and New England. Their Energy Costs are the highest in the U.S., with the exception of California, run by Gavin Newscum, the Worst Governor in the State’s History. I’d even take Biden over Junior’, because our Country would last a year or two longer prior to collapse - But it would be dead either way. His Views on Vaccines are FAKE, as is everything else about his Candidacy. Let the Democrats have RFK Jr. They deserve him!

Kennedy clapped back at Trump on Saturday in a post on X where he characterized Trump’s comments as “a barely coherent barrage of wild and inaccurate claims that should best be resolved in the American tradition of presidential debate” and then went into a list of Trump’s perceived failures while he was in office.

To preview my arguments, I will show how President Trump betrayed the hopes of his most sincere followers. He promised to end the Ukraine war and then colluded with Speaker Johnson and President Biden to fund it. He let Big Pharma and his corrupt bureaucrats run roughshod over him as President. He promised to cut the deficit and ran up the biggest debt in history. He promised to run the government like a business and then closed down our businesses. He promised to drain the swamp and then filled his administration with swamp creatures. He promised to protect our rights and then torpedoed the Constitution.

Instead of lobbing poisonous bombs from the safety of his bunker, let’s hear President Trump defend his record to me mano-a-mano by respectful, congenial debate.

When frightened men take to social media they risk descending into vitriol, which makes them sound unhinged. President Trump's rant against me is a barely coherent barrage of wild and inaccurate claims that should best be resolved in the American tradition of presidential debate.…

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) April 27, 2024

This virtual donnybrook comes after an NBC News poll showed that RFK Jr.’s candidacy would do more damage to Trump than Biden. These results were a remarkable departure from others showing the opposite.

A new poll seems to suggest that RFK Jr’s candidacy could harm Trump’s campaign more than Biden’s. However, there still might be more to this than it seems.

The latest national NBC News poll finds the third-party vote — and especially independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — cutting deeper into former President Donald Trump’s support than President Joe Biden’s, though the movement the other candidates create is within the poll’s margin of error.

Trump leads Biden by 2 percentage points in a head-to-head matchup, 46% to 44%, in the new NBC News poll.

Yet when the ballot is expanded to five named candidates, Biden is the one with a 2-point advantage: Biden 39%, Trump 37%, Kennedy 13%, Jill Stein 3% and Cornel West 2%.

The big reason is that the poll finds a greater share of Trump voters in the head-to-head matchup backing Kennedy in the expanded ballot. Fifteen percent of respondents who picked Trump the first time pick Kennedy in the five-way ballot, compared with 7% of those who initially picked Biden.

In addition, Republican voters view Kennedy much more favorably (40% positive, 15% negative) than Democratic voters do (16% positive, 53% negative).

Kennedy has made tremendous waves on the political scene, especially after he decided against running as a Democrat. While his independent candidacy is a long shot, it is clear that he is set to have a significant impact on the outcome of the upcoming election, which could explain why Trump is targeting him.