Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Friday challenged the premise of Donald Trump’s promise to “make America great again,” and asked if Trump knows how America ever became great in his closing pitch to South Carolinians.
Speaking in Myrtle Beach, Cruz launched into an extended diatribe about what he perceived as Trump’s lackluster position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He followed it up with a list of Cruz’s campaign promises and a stinging rebuke of Trump’s singular message.
“We will see the economy explode, small businesses grow, young people coming out of school with three, four, five job opportunities. Wages going up. You know what? We’re going to be winning so much we’ll get tired of winning,” Cruz said, mimicking Trump’s message. “It’s easy to say let’s Make America Great Again, you can even print that on a baseball cap. The question to ask is, do you understand what made America great in the first place?”
The Texas senator has continued to prosecute Trump on the campaign trail with one day before the primary. Trump and Cruz appear to be locked in a dead heat in the Palmetto State, where Cruz trailed Trump by five percentage points, 28-23, in a new NBC/WSJ poll. Before Cruz upset Trump in the Iowa caucus, he trailed Trump by the same margin, 28-23, in a Des Moines Register/Bloomberg survey.
Trump ranks first in the Washington Examiner‘s newest GOP presidential power rankings. Cruz ranks second.
