Sen. Elizabeth Warren is throwing down the gauntlet, calling Donald Trump “a small, insecure moneygrubber,” and telling progressives they must work to ensure he is never elected president.  

And in doing so, she might be paving the way to become her party’s uniter-in-chief.  

“Donald Trump was drooling over the idea of a housing meltdown — because it meant he could buy up a bunch more property on the cheap,” the Massachusetts Democrat said of Trump in prepared remarks for the Center for Popular Democracy’s annual gala.  

Warren was referring to a 2007 quote , in which Trump said he was “excited” for housing prices to fall, since “I’ve made more money in bad markets than in good markets.”  

“What kind of a man does that?” Warren asked in her speech. “Root for people to get thrown out on the street? Root for people to lose their jobs? Root for people to lose their pensions? Root for two little girls in Clark County, Nevada, to end up living in a van? What kind of a man does that?”  

“I’ll tell you exactly what kind — a man who cares about no one but himself. A small, insecure moneygrubber who doesn’t care who gets hurt, so long as he makes some money off it. What kind of man does that? A man who will never be President of the United States.”  

Warren and the presumed Republican presidential nominee have traded barbs on social media, but Warren said that her points Tuesday evening, “won’t fit in a Twitter war.”  

In one her points, Warren went after Trump’s declining to release current tax returns.  

“Maybe he’s just a lousy businessman who doesn’t want you to find out
that he’s worth a lot less money than he claims. But we know one thing: the last time his taxes were made public, Donald Trump paid nothing —zero,” Warren said.  

It’s part of a developing pattern for Warren, a favorite of many in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, who is seen as an essential peace broker once the often-contentious primary process between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., comes to a close. Warren has yet to endorse either candidate.  

She is making the case to supportive audiences, including many backers of the Sanders presidential campaign, that defeating Trump must be goal number one.  

[
Playing Politics With Commencement Speeches
] Warren was critical of Trump during a weekend commencement speech at Suffolk University in her home state of Massachusetts where, as MassLive reported , the senator brought up Trump’s lack of support among women voters.  

“How’s this speech polling so far?” Warren asked the university president during her remarks. “Higher or lower than Donald Trump’s unfavorable numbers with women?”  

Contact Lesniewski at NielsLesniewski@cqrollcall.com and follow him on Twitter @nielslesniewski.

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