The political bromance has ended. Cruz and The Donald have officially began slinging mud at each other–unfortunately it’s Melania and Heidi who are getting dirty.
It all began when the anti-Trump, pro-Cruz PAC, Make America Awesome, posted an ad on Facebook. The ad was targeting the large Mormon communities in Utah and Arizona just prior to their primaries. The ad was what some may call a tasteful– yet provocative– nude photo of Melania Trump. This racy photo of Melania was featured in a 2000 issue of the UK version of GQ Magazine. The photo in the ad was captioned:
“Meet Melania Trump, your next First Lady. Or, you could support Ted Cruz on Tuesday.”
The Cruz campaign denied any involvement in the ad campaign of the SuperPAC. According to the Cruz campaign communications director, Alice Stewart, the Cruz campaign denounced the ad and she stated that Ted was calling family members “off-limits.”
Trump is the king of drama and in the eyes of Trump, Cruz had thrown down the gauntlet. It was time to fight. And If we know anything about Trump, it’s that he’s a brawler. So of course he was not going to simply take the high road and simply let the issue go. Instead, he took to Twitter and tweeted:
Lyin' Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a G.Q. shoot in his ad. Be careful, Lyin' Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2016
Stephen Miller, who serves as Trump’s S enior Advisor, sent a public warning to the Cruz camp. He let them know that Trump would not let the issue go until Cruz publicly condemned the ad campaign and told the SuperPAC to knock it off with the ads.
Cruz responded to the Trump tweet with one of his own:
Pic of your wife not from us. Donald, if you try to attack Heidi, you're more of a coward than I thought. #classless https://t.co/0QpKSnjgnE
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 23, 2016
The most ironic part of this whole mess is while the anti-Trump SuperPAC was busy releasing ads on Facebook to shame Melania, she was photographed babysitting Cruz’s kids during the debate.
@MELANIATRUMP watching Ted Cruz's children at the debate! As always Melania displays her class! @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/gKd8xjAY33
— Lori Hendry (@Lrihendry) March 24, 2016
Round One: Melania
To be continued…
Featured image @Lori Hendry on Twitter