Donald Trump has ramped up his battle against Ted Cruz, one of his closest competitors in the Republican presidential nomination race. Previously, the two candidates had what many were calling a “bromance.”
For some time, it appeared as though Donald Trump and Ted Cruz had somewhat of an alliance. Neither candidate really attacked the other, which has been a rare occurrence in this election cycle. Now, that alliance has, without question, come to an end.
In a recent interview with ABC News ‘ George Stephanopoulos, Trump called the freshman Senator from Texas as “nasty guy” and said that no one likes him.
“Look, the truth is, he’s a nasty guy. He was so nice to me. I mean, I knew it. I was watching. I kept saying, ‘Come on Ted. Let’s go, okay.’ But he’s a nasty guy. Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him. He’s a very –- he’s got an edge that’s not good. You can’t make deals with people like that and it’s not a good thing. It’s not a good thing for the country. Very nasty guy.”
According to the polls , the idea that “nobody” likes Ted Cruz is obviously not true. Cruz is in a distant second place in most national polls, and in Iowa the two are in a much closer race. The RCP national average for Trump is 34.5 percent while Cruz is at 19.3 percent.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr , Trump and Cruz are in a head-to-head battle in the important state of Iowa. Most of the recent polls have shown that Sen. Cruz has a slight lead over Trump in Iowa, which is significant for the Cruz campaign.
It’s worth noting that the polls showing Cruz’s slight advantage in Iowa were taken before the latest GOP debate. By nearly every commentators measure, Trump won the last GOP debate and most also agree that Marco Rubio had a strong night as well.
One candidate that didn’t have the greatest night at the debate was Cruz, who made derogatory comments about New Yorkers and “New York values.” Trump (who was born in Queens), shot back at Cruz over his comments and clearly bested Cruz.
It will be interesting to see if the “New York values” moment in the debate will negatively affect Cruz’s poll numbers or not. Many political commentators agrees that Cruz’s comments about New Yorkers were offensive and that Trump’s response was well executed.
On Friday, Ted Cruz offered an apology to New Yorkers, but not for the comments that he made. Instead of apologizing for what many would call offensive comments, Cruze apologized for the “liberal politicians” that have let down millions of New Yorkers.
“I apologize to the millions of New Yorkers who have been let down by the liberal politicians in that state.”
During his recent ABC News interview, Trump also took some time to criticize Cruz for taking out a loan during his 2012 Senate campaign that he failed to disclose.
“He’s a total hypocrite. How about his fundraising and how about when he does his personal financial disclosure form, and he doesn’t put on that he’s borrowing money from Goldman Sachs? And then today it comes out that he’s also borrowing money from CitiBank and he doesn’t list it.”
Trump has also been publicly skeptical of Cruz’s eligibility to become president. Since Cruz was born in Canada, Trump has pointed out that if Cruz were to become the Republican nominee, he may face legal troubles that could harm the GOP.
[Photo by Rainier Ehrhardt / AP]