Ted Cruz Credits Trump’s ‘Instinctual Genius’ for Calling Him ‘Lyin’ Ted’

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) praised President Donald Trump’s “instinctual genius” for branding him “Lyin’ Ted” during their bitter 2016 Republican presidential primary battle.

Cruz made the remark during a Wednesday appearance on Pod Force One, the New York Post podcast hosted by Miranda Devine.

Devine asked Cruz about his relationship with Trump, noting, “I think he regards you as his strongest supporter in the Senate,” before questioning whether it was a “shrewd decision” for Cruz to put their past clashes behind him.

“In that 2016 campaign, I was the only candidate who beat him over and over again,” the Texas senator responded, making sure to point out that he won 12 states. “I don’t think [Trump] respects girly men. He doesn’t respect people who are weak. He respects people who have strength because, listen, the guy’s got a cast-iron backbone.”

“It was an ugly primary,” Cruz acknowledged, with Devine pointing out, “He called you ‘Lyin’ Ted.'”

“Oh, yeah!” Cruz exclaimed. “Which I will admit was politically very effective. Look, the man has an instinctual genius. What was so effective about it was that my single strongest attribute was that the voters trusted me… 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 did admit, though, “I could have chosen to be pissed off.”

Former Trump White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews shared some choice words for the Texas senator on X, asking viewers, first off, about his purple suit, “What the f*ck is Ted Cruz wearing?”

She continued, “The humiliation ritual for Ted Cruz truly never ends. 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.”

Watch the above on YouTube.

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