‘It Was Brilliant!’ Ted Cruz Praises Trump’s ‘Lyin’ Ted’ Attack Against Him as ‘Political Genius’

Offended? Nah, he was impressed.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told Fox News host Sean Hannity he had no hard feelings about President Donald Trump repeatedly bashing him during the 2016 campaign and branding him “Lyin’ Ted,” with the Texas conservative saying it proved Trump was the linguistic equivalent of a martial arts sensei.

“Did it piss you off at the time?” Hannity asked Cruz about the nickname on the Tuesday episode of his Hang Out podcast.

“No, because I respect the fight,” Cruz said. “It was actually political genius.”

He continued praising the president from there:

He’s got an instinctual marketing genius. If you look at that race, my biggest strength was people trusting me. People trusted that I believed what I said, that when I said I would do something I would do it. That had been my whole record of doing what I said.

“Lyin’ Ted” — it was effective, because it literally went to my greatest strength. Like, you do martial arts — it’s jiu-jitsu, it’s using your opponent’s strength against him. It was brilliant.

Cruz’s response comes after he and the president traded several verbal blows on the campaign trail a decade ago. Beyond the “Lyin’ Ted” nickname, Trump notably called out Cruz’s wife, after the senator used a GQ picture of Melania Trump in one of his ads. Trump didn’t love it.

“Be careful, Lyin’ Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!” Trump posted.

Trump followed that up by retweeting a post comparing an unflattering picture of Heidi Cruz with his wife.

“No need to ‘spill the beans,’ the images are worth a thousand words,” the meme was captioned.

The president later said he made a “mistake” by sharing the post.

Hannity told Cruz he “didn’t like” Trump going after his wife and had privately confronted Trump about it at the time.

“I yelled at him, [in] let’s say very New York-style language” to “stop attacking people’s families,” Hannity said.

But bygones appear to be bygones now. When Hannity asked Cruz early in the show whether it was fair to say he and Trump were “very friendly,” Cruz told him, “Absolutely. Good friends.”

Watch above via Hang Out with Sean Hannity.

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