Rick Santorum says Donald Trump was too liberal on Mexicans for calling them rapists and drug dealers

'All that glitters is not gold'

(Getty-Images)

Republican Rick Santorum attempted to jump on the Donald Trump media bandwagon by critiquing the real-estate mogul's racist rant.

Mr Santorum said he appreciated Mr Trump for bringing highlighting the importance of immigration to the mainstream news but he said that the billionaire wasn't sufficiently conservative on the issue.

“He may be good on the border — but on other issues, he’s not all that conservative,” Mr Santorum said during a breakfast held by The Christian Science Monitor.

Mr Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator and 2012 runner-up, said Mr Trump should not support illegal immigrants' pathways to citizenship.

“All that glitters is not gold,” Mr Santorum said, arguing that fewer immigrants should be allowed in the states to protect low-skill jobs for Americans.

"Since 2000, there have been about 6.5 million net new jobs created in this country. What percentage of those net new jobs are held by people who are in this country but not born in this country? The answer is all of them. There are fewer native-born Americans working today than there was in the year 2000.”

Watch Mr Santorum's entire 57-minute interview here: