The feud between Sen. Ted Cruz and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump just heated up. After attacking Cruz on Twitter over his ‘New York values’ comment, his Canadian birth, and loans he took out from Goldman Sachs and Citibank, super PACs supporting Cruz fired back with a digital ad that uses Trump’s own words to heap praise on the Texas senator.
The 60-second spot is part of a coordinated six-figure buy by affiliated groups that call themselves Keep the Promise and are backed by Cruz’s biggest donors.
It comes hours after tensions between Trump and Cruz escalated when Trump told ABC’s “This Week” that Cruz is a “very 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,” Trump said.
Kellyanne Conway, a longtime Republican strategist and president of one of the Keep the Promise groups, said that Cruz allies decided to promptly respond – and that Trump’s scathing criticism Sunday did not echo what he said a few years ago.
“Guess who likes Cruz? Donald Trump. He calls him ‘brave’ and ‘a special guy’ in our new ad,” Conway said in a statement.
Trump’s laudatory comments were made in 2014 at a fundraising event in Florida.
