Donald Trump issued an uncharacteristic apology to Ted Cruz after insulting his wife and father during the 2016 campaign — only for the Texas senator to still refuse to endorse Trump at the Republican convention.
In a new memoir, Trump’s campaign manager at the time, Paul Manafort, writes: “On his own initiative, Trump apologized for saying some of the things he said about Cruz, which was unusual for Trump.”
The telling vignette – possibly an embarrassing one for two powerful Republicans who have since formed an alliance of convenience – can be found in Political Prisoner: Persecuted, Prosecuted, but Not Silenced, which will be published in the US next month. The Guardian obtained a copy.
Manafort was Trump’s campaign manager between May and August 2016.
Imprisoned on tax charges in a case stemming from the investigation into Russian election meddling and links between Trump and Moscow, Manafort did not turn on Trump and was pardoned just before the end of Trump’s time in power.
In his memoirs, he denies collusion with Russia, laments his experiences with the US justice system, admits to indirectly advising Trump in 2020 while at home, and expresses strong support for another Trump campaign in 2024.
In 2016, in a brutal primary election, Trump insinuated that Cruz’s wife was ugly and linked her father to the assassination of John F Kennedy. He also questioned whether Cruz, born in Canada, was qualified to be President of the United States and coined a lasting nickname, Lyin’ Ted.
Manafort’s description of a Trump apology for such statements may come as a surprise to both men.
Trump is known for never apologizing, either in his business career or in his seven-year career across the American political scene.
And when Cruz finally got in with Trump, in September 2016, he said, “Neither he nor his campaign has ever taken back a word they said about my wife and my family.”
Now Manafort says Trump apologized — and Cruz’s face with it.
Describing a meeting intended to gain Cruz’s support before the July convention in Cleveland, Manafort writes that the senator said he would work with the man who beat him to second place in the primary but would not formally endorse him, “because his supporters didn’t . wants him to”.
Manafort writes: “It was a forced rationale for someone who is normally very logical. Trump didn’t buy it.”
Trump nevertheless apologized, writes Manafort, and “told Cruz that he considered him an ally, not an enemy, and that he thought they could work together when Trump was president.”
At least initially, Trump’s efforts were in vain. In his speech at the convention, Cruz did not endorse Trump and was booed by the crowd. The senator’s wife, Heidi Cruz, was escorted out of the arena out of concern for her safety.
Manafort accuses Cruz’s aides of “double-dealing,” describing Trump declaring “This is bullshit” as the senator spoke and then walking to the back of the conference room, “effectively drawing attention away from Cruz and undermining his speech.
“Cruz was then told there was a technical problem – a legitimate error – and the volume went out on his speech.”
Recordings of the speech do not clearly show such a technical error.
Cruz, Manafort writes, was “very upset. It took months to get that relationship back. But in the end, Cruz came around to supporting Trump, and Trump had no ill will.”
Whether Cruz and Trump will bear any ill will toward Manafort, to undermine Cruz’s claim of never receiving an apology and to say that Trump delivered a rare one, remains to be seen, of course.
