During the 2016 presidential campaign, then candidate Trump relentlessly referred to his main Republican rival as "Lyin' Ted."
Cruz, of course, claimed to be the only one who could stop Trump, although he never really even came close. Also, Cruz billed himself as totally honest and trustworthy, going so far as to put is own name on the word trusTED (get it?) to reinforce his own moral superiority.
However, Cruz lost, and despite some obvious misgivings, particularly during the Republican convention, Cruz now seems to have become just one of many bootlickers for Trump.
Recently, Cruz took to writing Trump's praises for Time magazine, and essentially, he claims that Trump is doing a great job because he is angering a lot of the "liberal elites" that obviously anger many conservatives like Cruz and Trump.
Below are the comments in full that Cruz wrote in praise of the work done by President Trump:
President Trump is a flash-bang grenade thrown into Washington by the forgotten men and women of America. The fact that his first year as Commander in Chief disoriented and distressed members of the media and political establishment is not a bug but a feature.
The same cultural safe spaces that blinkered coastal elites to candidate Trump’s popularity have rendered them blind to President Trump’s achievements on behalf of ordinary Americans. While pundits obsessed over tweets, he worked with Congress to cut taxes for struggling families. While wealthy celebrities announced that they would flee the country, he fought to bring back jobs and industries to our shores. While talking heads predicted Armageddon, President Trump’s strong stand against North Korea put Kim Jong Un back on his heels.
President Trump is doing what he was elected to do: disrupt the status quo. That scares the heck out of those who have controlled Washington for decades, but for millions of Americans, their confusion is great fun to watch.
Indeed, Cruz is hardly the first conservative whom I have heard speak admiringly about Trump's entertainment value. And while I personally do not find Trump entertaining (and frankly, never have), I have some issues with this particular version of what passes for praise for this president on these grounds. Here's the thing: a real President should offer more than entertainment value and his ability to, as Cruz suggested, distress the media and political establishment, which Cruz himself is naturally a prominent part of (which is something that he apparently wants everyone to forget).
As for his list of accomplishments (other than pissing people off, which Trump admittedly has an incredible talent for, as he has gained notoriety the world over for it, in fact), here are some simple realities. The tax scam was a disaster, and even fellow Republican Marco Rubio (who voted for it) just publicly questioned why it seems that the rich are benefiting, but not helping the economy with the extra money, while it benefited average Americans very little. So much for that. Next, Trump supposedly has helped ordinary, working American families, according to Cruz. But his first act in office was to make home ownership more difficult for average people. Also, there was the tax scam. Trump has failed to save the coal industry or bring those jobs back, which was a major part of his campaign promises. And while the numbers on Wall Street look strong, average Americans are not seeing most of these benefits. Once again, Trump has failed to deliver on these promises, nor on the promise not to go on vacation or to play golf, which he has done despite his stressing as a candidate that he would be too busy fixing the countless problems facing the country. Finally, as for North Korea, we shall see what happens on that, even though his fans are shouting for him to get the Nobel Peace Prize. Despite Trump's assurances that a deal is very close, nothing solidly has happened just yet. Also, we have to wonder just how much Trump's desire to break an American treaty and pull out of the Iran deal might impact this, and potentially future negotiations with other nations.
Now, as for Cruz himself, he might find President Trump's antics "great fun to watch," but he complained about those same antics, and implied that they were not very presidential during the campaign. At that point, when Trump was essentially kicking Cruz's ass and crushing his pathetic hopes to reach the White House, Cruz did not seem to find Trump's ridiculously petty and immature manner and way of doing things such "great fun to watch."
There was something undeniably creepy about Cruz that I never liked. Perhaps it is his smug, overly sure manner. Perhaps it is that the levels of hypocrisy between his claims of being a devout Christian, contrasted with the decidedly uncharitable and, I would argue, unChristian way in which he viewed the world, just felt so blatant and obvious, that it made him particularly irksome. After all, as horrible as Trump undeniably always was, he did not at the time cloak himself behind his professed religious beliefs which guided his every decision, like Cruz seems to suggest. God is now mentioned by Trump far more often than I ever remember it (and I am skeptical about his sincerity, although that is another discussion entirely), but Cruz just wore it so blatantly on his sleeve, that it instantly made me distrust the man.
Also, he just had an irritating, highly condescending style. He so clearly looked down on anyone and everyone who did not believe as he does, or professes to. This is a man who's blatant lying and contradictions could rival Trump's at times. Remember how he was instantly fact checked recently when he claimed that government shutdowns were not a good thing, that it hurts real people trying to make a living? Of course, he was talking about the potential of a government shutdown that he felt the Democrats were going to be responsible for the government shutdown, but he forgot his own leading role in the past with a government shutdown in order to prove a political point or, more obviously, to advance his own obviously high political ambitions.
What a pathetic man! How unsurprising that he would wind up being the runner up, right behind Trump, in the 2016 Republican primaries. He was slimy and hypocritical enough to appeal to some Evangelical Christians, but Trump obviously was the top choice when the winner was to be the trashiest, most rebellious. By comparison, Cruz was second rate, and largely inconsequential.
By and large, he seems indeed to be living up to Trump's own dismissive label of him as "Lyin' Ted." Frankly, I cannot wait until Cruz is entirely insignificant in the political sphere, and crawls back from the hole he crawled out of in the first place.
It cannot happen soon enough, as far as I am concerned.
There was something undeniably creepy about Cruz that I never liked. Perhaps it is his smug, overly sure manner. Perhaps it is that the levels of hypocrisy between his claims of being a devout Christian, contrasted with the decidedly uncharitable and, I would argue, unChristian way in which he viewed the world, just felt so blatant and obvious, that it made him particularly irksome. After all, as horrible as Trump undeniably always was, he did not at the time cloak himself behind his professed religious beliefs which guided his every decision, like Cruz seems to suggest. God is now mentioned by Trump far more often than I ever remember it (and I am skeptical about his sincerity, although that is another discussion entirely), but Cruz just wore it so blatantly on his sleeve, that it instantly made me distrust the man.
Also, he just had an irritating, highly condescending style. He so clearly looked down on anyone and everyone who did not believe as he does, or professes to. This is a man who's blatant lying and contradictions could rival Trump's at times. Remember how he was instantly fact checked recently when he claimed that government shutdowns were not a good thing, that it hurts real people trying to make a living? Of course, he was talking about the potential of a government shutdown that he felt the Democrats were going to be responsible for the government shutdown, but he forgot his own leading role in the past with a government shutdown in order to prove a political point or, more obviously, to advance his own obviously high political ambitions.
What a pathetic man! How unsurprising that he would wind up being the runner up, right behind Trump, in the 2016 Republican primaries. He was slimy and hypocritical enough to appeal to some Evangelical Christians, but Trump obviously was the top choice when the winner was to be the trashiest, most rebellious. By comparison, Cruz was second rate, and largely inconsequential.
By and large, he seems indeed to be living up to Trump's own dismissive label of him as "Lyin' Ted." Frankly, I cannot wait until Cruz is entirely insignificant in the political sphere, and crawls back from the hole he crawled out of in the first place.
It cannot happen soon enough, as far as I am concerned.
Ted Cruz Loses Last Scrap of Dignity, Writes Time Tribute to His Bully, Donald Trump By Jonathan Chait, April 19, 2018:
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