While Donald Trump is a strain for Ted Cruz in Texas, former enemies become allies

These were not the signs of a healthy relationship.

Donald Trump, poised to win the Republican presidential nomination, was ruthless in his brutal attacks on rival Ted Cruz. He repeatedly mocked the senator with the name "Lyin 'Ted," suggesting that his father had played a role in the assassination of John F. Kennedy and even mocked the appearance of Cruz's wife, Heidi. .

"I do not get angry often, but you mess with my wife, you bleat with my kids, it will do it every time," Cruz, a Republican from Texas, told reporters at a stage of his Election campaign in March 2016. Angry finger in front of the cameras. "Donald, you're a coward who cries and leaves Heidi quiet."

Two and a half years later, Cruz will occupy the Toyota Center scene in Houston with Trump, who is holding a rally to help Cruz in his surprisingly tight re-election battle with US representative Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso. .

The event is the culmination of a tumultuous relationship between the two men. Cruz rose from a fierce critic who refused to approve Trump at the 2016 Republican Convention to a servile ally who now eagerly talks to work. with President Trump to keep "our promises".

Their rocky journey, from their mutual brominating status, rests largely on political expediency – a common recognition that both derive more from an alliance than from a fugitive quarrel.

"Look, they went to the board, everything is fine now, they're meeting, they're hearing now," said Rick Tyler, political analyst and Republican strategist for MSNBC, who worked as spokesperson for the candidacy from Cruz to the presidency.

But, he added, "I still do not know that they have a relationship as one might think of two people who are friends. They have a transactional relationship and it works for the moment. "

In the Senate, where Trump holds a Republican majority as thin as a razor, the president recognizes that Cruz has become an unwavering ally on a range of crucial issues, ranging from the attempt to repeal the health care law from former President Barack Obama to reducing taxes through conservative judicial appointments.

And Cruz understands that, especially in a state like Texas, rejecting the Republican president in place – even controversial – is not what most of his followers want. Trump also has the ability to boost his Senate race, which has proven to be one of the most watched in the country.

"I think Ted accepted his defeat and realized that he had a choice to make: continue the fight or work with Trump and he chose to work with Trump," said Senator Lindsey. O. Graham, RS.C. "So it's in Ted's interest to be useful to the president, and to have allies when you have 51 Senate seats, and I think that's what happened here."

However, when the two men quarreled over the investiture, the duo mingled with happy and memorable vitriol. Trump called Cruz "a little manic", "a totally unstable individual" and "the biggest liar" that he had ever met. Cruz countered by naming Trump "utterly amoral", "a series serial", a "pathological liar" and "a proud jester and braggart".

The relationship, however, has not always been contentious. Cruz and some staff went to Trump Tower in 2015 for a cordial visit with Trump. And at the start of the campaign, Cruz's team took the strategic decision not to attack Trump in the hope that the Texas senator would become the last candidate against him. Cruz invited Trump to a rally in front of the Capitol against the Iranian nuclear treaty and even worked to organize a joint trip with Trump on the southern border.

But then, things turned south – a bend so acrimonious that reconciliation, when it arrived, was slow.

The nadir came to the Republican convention in Cleveland. After winning the nomination of his party, Trump asked Cruz to speak at the convention and support him.

With raw feelings, Cruz – who still commanded the loyalty of a band of conservative and evangelical voters – consulted a small group of loyal aides and family members. Some advised not to speak at all to the convention, while others said that if he appeared he should be ready to approve the party's candidate, according to current and former councilors. But Cruz, with the support of some in his orbit, settled on a third option: he would accept the coveted talking slot but would refuse to approve Trump.

Cruz knew that the decision was contentious and privately explained a series of scenarios, ranging from being heckled to those of Trump, to accepting an endorsement that was never offered.

The moment – which produced a roar of taunts and scandals, and the surprise arrival of Trump in the convention center – even disconcerted some in Cruz's orbit. Several of his own donors have excoriated him, including megadoners Robert and Rebekah Mercer, a lonely father-daughter duo who took the rare step of issuing a public statement criticizing him.

The Cruz team – who said they sent a copy of his speech to the Trump campaign – felt ready to fail, while the Trump team felt burned by Cruz.

"It was as if the Ohio State was entering Michigan Stadium," said a Cruz advisor, expressing himself under the guise of anonymity, in order to share a heartfelt recollection. "It was intense. It was deep. It was not comfortable and it was not fun and we got together. "

Finally, after weeks of private discussions between the two parties, Cruz approved Trump in a Facebook post in late September 2016. In his message, he called Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate, "utterly unacceptable" and praised the "very strong list potential candidates for the Supreme Court," had announced Trump.

Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), who is an intimate friend of Cruz and on whom Cruz had insisted on being included as a key member, was included in the list of candidates to whom Trump had explicitly promised to fill the vacant post. the Supreme Court. point of friction for his endorsement.

Facebook's approval came two weeks before the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape, in which Trump bragged and spoke with shameless kissing and fiddling with women without their consent. But Cruz remained faithful to Trump, a moment that the president's allies have not forgotten.

"Throughout the campaign, he was very concerned about withdrawing his support," said Andy Surabian, who led the war room during Trump's campaign and now serves as a political advisor to his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. Did not do what so many other Republicans did, even though he had had a difficult relationship with Trump because of their battles during the primaries, that's when the vision Ted Cruz's in Trumpworld has begun to change for the better. "

By the time Trump won the presidency, Cruz was ready to work with him. Shortly after polling day, Cruz called a meeting with Senate staff and sent a message of incisive support to the new president, said people familiar with the discussion.

The Texas senator has set out a number of his priorities: to move the US embassy to Israel, to withdraw from the Iran deal, to cut taxes, to repeal Obama's health care law, to appoint Conservative judges, and talk about working with Trump. promote a shared agenda.

"We can do everything we have decided to do, just in this case it will be President Trump who will sign most of these bills," Cruz told his staff.

"The presidents of both parties have quickly realized that those who are useful and those who do not sit in Congress are different from those they might have thought," said Josh Holmes, a Republican strategist who was previously chief of staff Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) "And it's hard to argue that Cruz has been anything but helpful to Donald Trump since he became president."

There were also personal gestures. Cruz visited the president elected to the Trump Tower shortly after his election for a warm meeting that lasted longer than expected. The Trumps invited the Cruzes and their two girls to dine at the White House. They also had dinner with Trump's daughter, Ivanka, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, at a corner table at Fiola Mare in Washington. Kushner joined Cruz for one of his weekly basketball games in a gym in the Senate office building Dirksen.

Shortly after the election, Cruz and Trump Jr. sat down for a thought dinner. The two people got on well – an advisor from Cruz said the seating arrangement was deviously intentional – and Trump Jr. urged the senator to return to the lobby of the Trump International Hotel in Washington. The two men stayed late in the evening and Trump Jr. later told his friends that he knew it was not easy for Cruz to join him.

When Trump Jr. and his team noticed that the ballot was closing in Cruz's Senate race, they reached out to his campaign and offered to help him. Earlier this month, Trump Jr. traveled to Texas for a full day of events with Cruz: three fundraisers and two rallies.

And on Monday, the president will also appear alongside Cruz. Like many makeup stories, this one contains competing versions of the person who took the first step. Both parties claim that the other has reached out and there have been some slight murmurs. Some in Trump's orbit think he's doing Cruz a favor: "It's mid-October," said a senior White House official. "Do we really want to spend our time in Texas?" – while one of Cruz's allies assumed that Trump wanted to claim credit now that it seemed likely that Cruz would win it.

It seems that Cruz's relaxation with Trump has also helped to improve some of these relationships. Graham, who became one of the president's main allies, once suggested that Cruz was so unpopular that if he were murdered in the Senate, none of his colleagues would vote for the conviction.

"Well, I would change that now – I would vote to condemn," said Graham. "I love Ted. It would be a real loss for the cause. "

Before his rally, however, Cruz still seems a little hesitant about Trump – refusing Sunday to say he considers him a friend or an enemy.

"It's the president. I'm working with the president to keep our promises, "Cruz said in an interview with ABC News's" This Week. "" What I told the president the week after the election, I said, "Mr. Mr. Speaker, I want to do everything humanly possible to roll up my sleeves and lead the fight in the Senate to keep our promises. "