Cruz calls Trump a ‘flash-bang grenade’ in Time 100 profile

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) hailed President Trump as a “flash-bang grenade thrown into Washington,” writing in a profile published Thursday that the president had delivered on his promise to “disrupt the status quo.”

“President Trump is a flash-bang grenade thrown into Washington by the forgotten men and women of America,” Cruz wrote in a profile for Time magazine’s list of “most influential people of 2018.”

“The fact that his first year as Commander in Chief disoriented and distressed members of the media and political establishment is not a bug but a feature.”

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Cruz’s praise for Trump underscored how the senator’s views on the real estate mogul have shifted since the two sparred bitterly during the 2016 Republican presidential primaries.

During the 2016 race, Trump suggested that Cruz’s father was involved in the John F. Kennedy assassination, and retweeted a tweet critical of Cruz’s wife’s appearance.

But on Thursday, Cruz offered a glowing assessment of the first 15 months of Trump’s presidency, writing that the president has not only upset “coastal elites” with his disruptive style, but that “their confusion is great fun to watch.”

Among the accomplishments touted by Cruz were a series of GOP-led tax cuts signed into law by Trump in December and an international pressure campaign against North Korea.