Donald Trump insisted Monday that the Republican establishment is against him, but conceded that party leaders are warming to his candidacy as a better alternative to rival Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential bid.
“I think the establishment actually is against me, but really coming on line because they see me as opposed to Cruz who is a nasty guy who can’t get along with anybody,” Trump said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “At a certain point you’ve got to make deals.”
In the interview Trump touted his reputation as a dealmaker. Trump positioned himself as a more credible presidential candidate than Cruz, the Texas senator who casts himself as a principled lawmaker but whom critics call inflexible.
And Trump pointed to Cruz’s 21-hour protest on the Senate floor in fall 2013 — in an unsuccessful bid to defund the Affordable Care Act — as proof that “Ted cannot get along with anybody.”
Trump added that he believes Cruz is a “nasty person.”
“We can’t have a guy who stands in the middle of the Senate floor and every other senator thinks he’s a whack job.” Trump said Monday. “You have to make deals. You have to get along. That’s the purpose of what our founders created.”
While Trump’s candidacy has from the start faced a barrage of criticism from the political and consultant classes in Washington, several establishment Republicans have said lately that they would sooner back Trump than Cruz.
That has in turn become a new attack line by Cruz as he battles Trump for a first-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, which polling a week out shows could go either way. Cruz has taken to slamming Trump as the establishment’s new hope, suggesting that those in the Washington power club are abandoning Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in favor of the mogul.