How Trump Can Hit Ted Cruz From The Right
Trump can hit Ted Cruz tomorrow tonight.
The GOP debate tomorrow is must see TV with the emerging battle between the two frontrunners. I believe Trump can hit Ted Cruz from the right, but let’s set the scene first.
Donald Trump appears to be itching for a fight with Ted Cruz, after the New York Times posted audio of Cruz privately dismissing Trump’s candidacy as likely to fade. Trump had said he would not attack Cruz unless the Texas senator attacked him, but, appearing on Fox News Sunday, Trump called Cruz “a little bit of a maniac” and declared: “I don’t think he’s qualified to be president.” As eager as Trump is for a fight, Cruz appears equally eager to avoid the confrontation, tweeting laudatory comments about his rival, and deflecting the “maniac” jab by posting a clip from the movie Flashdance. Yet a dustup seems increasingly likely after two polls released this weekend showed Cruz surpassing Trump in Iowa. In the past, Trump has responded to challenges to his polling supremacy by lashing out at the person who knocked him off his pedestal.
Supposedly, Trump is “an alpha male in a sea of betas”. Ted Cruz must clap back less he risk being just another beta. Populism couched in entertainment are what the GOP primary has been about, and Trump can attack Cruz’s populism when it comes to trade.
Trump Can Hit Ted Cruz From The Right
From a rightwing populist perspective, Cruz fails miserably here. He has penned an op-ed with Paul Ryan supporting of Obama backed TPA and TPP. He also advocated for expanding the H1B Visa program.
Cruz’s wife Heidi is a VP at Wall Street boogeyman Goldman Sachs and served on the Council on Foreign Relations. If Trump attacks Cruz on trade, he exposes his interests and those of his backers as well.
The only reasonable response Cruz can give is revealing the cold, hard reality being that none of the candidates in this race is a 100% ideologically consistent conservative. They’re all politicians whose views shift in response to poll numbers, donor/lobbyist pressure, and internal ideological inconsistencies. This would make Cruz look better as a general election candidate, but just another politician in a GOP primary that has been especially hard on them. This issue is to Trump’s advantage and is one way he can hit Ted Cruz from the right.
