Trump went after Ted Cruz at a town hall event in Iowa Friday evening, accusing the Texas senator of being beholden to big oil companies because he opposes ethanol subsidies, which are deeply popular in this agricultural state.
"He's a nice guy. I mean, everything I say he agrees with me, no matter what I say," Trump began. "But with the ethanol, really, he's got to come a long way."
He added: "If Ted Cruz is against ethanol, how does he win in Iowa? Because that's very anti-Iowa."
Trump also appeared to take a veiled shot at Cruz's family background, suggesting Cruz might have trouble appealing to the state's evangelical voters. "I do like Ted Cruz, but not a lot of evangelicals come out of Cuba," he said of the country where Cruz's father, an evangelical preacher, was born.
The attacks came after The New York Times reported that Cruz had questioned Trump's judgment at a closed-door fundraiser, straining the rare detente between two of the race's most outspoken candidates. Trump has gone after his other opponents gleefully and viciously, panning Jeb Bush as low-energy, Ben Carson as "pathological" and Marco Rubio as a lightweight who drinks too much water.
But the billionaire businessman had refrained from attacking Cruz, even as the Texas senator has surged in opinion polls, becoming Trump's most serious challenger in early-voting Iowa.
But the billionaire businessman had refrained from attacking Cruz, even as the Texas senator has surged in opinion polls, becoming Trump's most serious challenger in early-voting Iowa.
