Former President Trump apologized to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) after he insulted the lawmaker’s wife and father on the campaign trail as they both vied for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, according to a new book from Trump’s onetime campaign manager Paul Manafort.
The Guardian, which obtained a copy of the book, reports that Manafort wrote that Trump, who rarely apologizes for slights, told Cruz he was sorry for calling his wife ugly and for falsely linking his father to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
During a face-to-face meeting with Cruz in Cleveland in July 2016, Trump told the senator “he considered him an ally, not an enemy, and that he believed they could work together when Trump was president,” according to Manafort’s book, “Political Prisoner: Persecuted, Prosecuted, but Not Silenced,” set to be released next month.
Manafort’s anecdote appears to contradict comments from Cruz, who said Trump never offered an apology to him during an interview in September 2016, after he endorsed Trump’s run.
”Heidi and my dad and I, we talked about it and we made a decision together — that we are going to choose to forgive him,” Cruz told The Texas Tribune.
Manafort, who served as Trump’s campaign manager from March to August 2016, was convicted on eight separate charges as part of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump pardoned Manafort before he left office.
In his new tell-all book, Manafort rails against the U.S. justice system, denies that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and says he advised Trump while in home confinement during the 2020 election, according to The Guardian.
On the 2016 campaign trail, Trump also questioned whether Cruz was born in Canada and even gave him one of his infamous nicknames: Lyin’ Ted.
Cruz did not immediately endorse Trump after the apology, which was given ahead of a convention the senator was going to speak at.
When Cruz did not endorse him at the convention, Trump said “This is bullshit” before walking off the stage, taking attention away from Cruz, Manafort writes.
But the pair would become close allies during Trump’s presidency.
Manafort also claims that Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen spied on the campaign, according to Vox, which also obtained a copy of the book.
Cohen, who in 2018 was sentenced to three years in prison for tax fraud and false testimony, denied the spying allegations to Vox. Manafort alleges Cohen had full access to 2016 Trump campaign servers and emails and was responsible for leaks to the press.