Trump's Taking His Anger Out on Texas

Former President Donald Trump—the current front-runner for the next Republican presidential nomination—has directed attacks at two prominent GOP Texas lawmakers during the past day, including recent ally Senator Ted Cruz.

In a message posted just after midnight on Truth Social, Trump resurfaced an old nickname for Cruz—"Lyin' Ted"—that the former president used repeatedly during his 2016 campaign when the two went head-to-head in the GOP primaries. Trump's jibe at Cruz followed his usual attacks at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the former president's closest competitor for the 2024 Republican nomination, who recently lost a top strategist at his super PAC Never Back Down (NBD), Jeff Roe.

Tuesday's attacks also followed closely after Trump took shots at Texas Representative Chip Roy, who has endorsed DeSantis for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination and went against Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. In a Truth Social message on late Monday, Trump asked if "any smart and energetic Republican" has decided to run against Roy, who Trump called "very beatable."

During his Tuesday post attacking Cruz, Trump wrote that "the Ron DeSanctimonious 'team' of misfits and grifters has largely quit his campaign to go on to greener pastures. It has been a terrible experience for them as they have watched their candidate fall violently from the sky like a wounded bird."

"Jeff Roe, his 'chief strategist' and head of his PAC, 'Always Back Down,' after having done major surgery on Ron's wallet, couldn't get out of town fast enough," Trump added. "Now Jeff can spend full time in Texas working with Ted Cruz, formerly known as Lyin' Ted, who is working hard to get back the magic they had together in 2016!"

Newsweek reached out to Cruz's office via email for comment.

Roe served as Cruz's campaign manager during the 2016 presidential race, when the Texas lawmaker lost the Republican presidential nomination to Trump. Following the election, however, Trump and Cruz formed a close allyship in Washington, and Cruz was one of the leading voices behind the former president's baseless claims of election fraud in 2020, and in 2018 Trump rebranded Cruz as "Beautiful Ted."

But amid the 2024 race, a rift has formed again between Trump and Cruz, who has refused to endorse the former president's reelection campaign over DeSantis.

Early in his campaign run in March, Trump kicked off his 2024 rally tour with an event in Waco, Texas, during which he took jabs at both Cruz and Texas Governor Greg Abbott for not endorsing his campaign at that time. Abbott has since endorsed Trump's reelection bid.

According to the polling group FiveThirtyEight, Trump holds a healthy lead over the rest of the GOP candidates in preliminary polling in Texas. As of Tuesday, 67 percent of voters in the state support the former president on average across the polls reviewed by FiveThirtyEight in October and November. In comparison, DeSantis is polling at 11.8 percent on average.