WASHINGTON – One of the most fractional couples in the political world is meeting again Monday in Texas.

President Donald Trump travels to Houston to try to convince the incumbent Senator, Ted Cruz, the last phase of a political relationship that has gone from warm to bad to tolerable.

"Ted Cruz has become a friend of mine," Trump said at a political rally last weekend in Missoula, Montana. It did not matter that Trump dubbed him "Lyin" Ted, insulting his wife and suggesting that his rival's father was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

For his part, Cruz expressed his support for the president, although he recently refused to describe Trump as a friend or an enemy.

"He is the president," said Cruz on ABC's "This Week" show. "I work with the president to keep our promises."

Perhaps Cruz still recalls describing Trump as a "pathological liar".

Both men tend to be all smiles Monday night at the Toyota Center in Houston. They have a common interest in holding the Texas Senate seat for Republicans, while Cruz is facing a well-funded challenge from his Democratic opponent, Rep. Beto O. Rourke.

With Cruz rising in the polls – the average of recent polls from Real Clear Politics gives it a 7% lead – many political analysts have suggested that Trump travel to Texas to congratulate on the expected victory of Cruz on November 6th .

"He wants to look like the man who needs to bail out Cruz," said Rick Tyler, an aide to the Texas senator during his bid for the 2016 presidency. "It's just a transactional relationship."

Many Republicans criticized Trump during his presidency in 2016 – including Cruz – but in 2018, many welcomed him back into the campaign as the GOP struggled to keep control of Congress.

Trump, the campaigner, is happy to be able to help him as he fills his rally schedule after rallying. He needs all the Republican lawmakers he can get to advance his agenda.

And candidates like Cruz need votes from Trump supporters who might be inclined to stay home for the middle elections, as the president himself is not registered on the ballot.

"It's a wonderful example of how political principles endure until the next election," said Jeffrey Engel, director of the Presidential History Center at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

The couple periodically showed friendship. In March 2017, the Texas senator, his wife Heidi and their two daughters dined at the White House.

However, there is some evidence to suggest that the two are not particularly close and that memories of the 2016 bloodletting persist.

At the start of the 2016 Republican Presidential nomination race, Cruz let go of several occasions to criticize Trump while the New York businessman was leading all the pre-primary polls. Aids at the time noted that Trump was busy attacking all their other common opponents.

Trump also refused to attack Cruz – at first. But that changed when Cruz started climbing the polls before the Iowa caucuses, the first contest on the Republican nominations calendar.

At that time, Trump began to wonder if Cruz, born in Canada, was eligible for the presidency and noted that other senators did not like him. "Lyin & # 39; Ted" has become part of the lexicon of the campaign.

Cruz responded by hitting Trump for "New York values" and describing him as a liberal on social issues like abortion.

The Republican race was mainly a clash between Trump and Cruz, reinforcing their rhetoric and rivalry. While Trump won most of the GOP primaries, Cruz defeated him in Iowa and Wisconsin and became the challenger with the best chance of denying Trump a majority of delegates going to the National Republican Convention.

At that time, Trump launched some of his most vicious attacks of the campaign against Cruz. At one point, he cited a very questionable article from National Enquirer suggesting that Cruz's father, Rafael, was part of a plot to assassinate JFK.

In March 2016, Trump posted on Twitter an unflattering photo of Cruz's wife, Heidi, next to a glamorous photo of Melania Trump, a former professional model.

"The images are worth 1,000 words," says the tweet.

Cruz reacted with equally harsh comments about Trump.

"This man is a pathological liar," he said at one point. "A narcissist at a level I do not think this country has ever seen."

For good measure, Cruz described Trump as "absolutely amoral" and "a serial philanderer".

When Cruz retired from the race after a crushing defeat against Trump during the Indiana primary in May 2016, he refused to support his rival. Even at the July convention in Cleveland, as Trump delegates rained down, Cruz urged Republicans to exercise their right to vote.

In September, Cruz offered a lukewarm Trump endorsement via the Facebook page.

During his interview with ABC on Sunday, Cruz said that "2016 was an election like no other," but there is no point in taking things personally to deal with Trump.

"If I put my personal feelings before the Texas performance," said Cruz, "it would be an abdication of my responsibility."

Read or share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/10/22/donald-trump-ted-cruz-texas-rally/1694688002/