For the first time on the campaign trail, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz viciously attacked front-runner Donald Trump on Saturday, accusing him of not being a conservative and for lacking the temperament and judgment befitting the White House.
"Donald’s record does not match what he says as a candidate," the Texas senator said to reporters in Fort Mill, S.C.,
The Washington Post reports.
"It seems Donald has a lot of nervous energy," he added. "For whatever reason, Donald doesn’t react well when he’s going down in the polls."
Cruz noted Thursday's poll by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal showing that he would beat Trump by eight points in a hypothetical contest, though Trump held a double-digit lead overall.
"I imagine it pulled him out of bed this morning and sent him tweeting and tweeting and tweeting," Cruz said, referring to a bevy of negative Twitter posts from the developer.
The escalated feud follows Cruz's attack on Trump for having "New York values" in a speech in Iowa on Tuesday.
He pointed to a 1999 "Meet the Press" interview in which Trump cited his New York roots as key to his value system.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.