Cruz on Trump labeling him ‘Lyin’ Ted’: ‘The man has an instinctual genius’

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) praised President Trump’s “instinctual genius” for giving him the nickname “Lyin’ Ted” during their intense 2016 Republican presidential primary fight.

In a Wednesday interview with the New York Post’s “Podcast One,” Cruz called the nickname “politically very effective” at the time, arguing Trump used it to undercut what Cruz considered one of his biggest strengths with voters.

“What was so effective about it was that my single strongest attribute was that voters trusted me,” Cruz told host Miranda Devine.

“The jiu-jitsu of Trump was to take my greatest strength and make an attack that goes right at it, and I think he does that instinctually in a very effective way,” he added.

Cruz was responding to a question from Devine about how he and Trump moved beyond their contentious 2016 race.

Cruz, who won 12 states during the 2016 presidential primary, described the contest as “ugly,” but he said he believes Trump respects people who show strength.

“I don’t think he respects girly men. He doesn’t respect people who are weak,” Cruz said. “He respects people who have strength because, listen, the guy’s got a cast-iron backbone.”

Cruz later endorsed Trump in the 2016 general election, and the two eventually became political allies.

By the time Trump first took office, Cruz was joking about their former rivalry. At a 2018 Gridiron Club dinner , Cruz joked that his presidential nickname had gone from “Lyin’ Ted” to “Beautiful Ted,” after Trump began using the new moniker during Cruz’s Senate reelection campaign.

Former deputy White House press secretary Sarah Matthews criticized Cruz’s comments, accusing him of debasing himself by praising Trump despite the president’s past attacks against Cruz and his family.

“The humiliation ritual for Ted Cruz truly never ends,” Matthews, who served during Trump’s first term, said in a reaction video posted on social media. “This man is so desperate for power that he willingly debases himself like this to praise a man who quite literally called his own wife ugly and said that his own father helped to assassinate JFK.”