The detente is over.
Donald Trump on Friday blasted Ted Cruz’s opposition to subsidies for ethanol, the first attack by the GOP front-runner against the Texas senator since the two political allies began running for president.
Cruz opposes the subsidies, which are widely popular in Iowa.
“Where are the ethanol people?” Trump asked the Des Moines crowd, drawing cheers and noting Cruz’s rise in Iowa polls. “With the ethanol, really, he’s got to come a long way, ’cause right now he’s for the oil.”
But Trump gave him an out: “But I understand it, oil pays him a lot of money. He’s got to be for oil, right?”
“But I’m with you,” he added. “I’m self-funding. I have no oil company. I have no special interest.”
Trump and Cruz have refused to attack each other over the course of the Republican campaign, as each appeals to the same disaffected GOP voters. Much of the Republican field, meanwhile, has not been shy about attacking Trump.
Later, Trump went even further, suggesting Cruz might not be able to relate to evangelicals as well as Trump can.
“I do like Ted Cruz, but not a lot of evangelicals come out of Cuba,” he said.