Don't Panic!

Trump: Cruz 'panicked'

By Nick Gass

Donald Trump began the day of the Nevada caucuses by taking a victory lap over Ted Cruz, who the previous day fired his top communications aide and signaled a rightward shift on immigration.

"Wow was Ted Cruz disloyal to his very capable director of communication. He used him as a scape goat-fired like a dog! Ted panicked," Trump wrote Tuesday morning, referring to Cruz's decision to fire communications director Rick Tyler over a social media post.

Later Monday evening, Cruz told Fox News' Bill O'Reilly that he would use Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of a broader effort to locate and deport the millions of people who are illegally in the United States.

The Texas senator had suggested to CNN in January, however, that he did not "intend to send jackboots to knock on your door and every door in America. That's not how we enforce the law for any crime.”

Apparently sensing an opening to counterpunch, Trump laced into Cruz for the comments, suggesting that he only said that because of his disappointing third-place performance in South Carolina.

"Ted Cruz only talks tough on immigration now because he did so badly in S.C. He is in favor of amnesty and weak on illegal immigration," Trump tweeted.

Trump later claimed that the senator "does not have the right 'temperment' to be President," reiterating that Cruz "totally panicked in firing" Tyler.