Why experts say Cruz is eligible for the presidency

New Yorker Donald Trump told The Washington Post that uncertainty over whether Ted Cruz of Texas satisfies the citizenship requirement to be president puts Republicans in a precarious position.

Trump highlighted that Republicans will have to ask themselves if they want a candidate who is likely to be tied up for two years in court.

“I don’t get it”, Trump said in the first of several references to Cruz.

“You can’t have a person running for office, even though Ted is very glib and he goes out and he says, ‘Oh, well, I’m a natural born citizen.’ The point is, you’re not”, Trump said during a rally in Clear Lake, Iowa.

Trump – who four years ago was demanding to see President Barack Obama’s birth certificate from Hawaii – dusted off the tactic once again, hitting Cruz over his Canadian birth in a Washington Post interview Tuesday night in MA. Cruz said he tries to bring his two young daughters, Caroline and Catherine, on the trail with him as much as possible. Trump told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that Cruz, whose mother was a US citizen, should go to court and ask a judge to rule that he’s eligible to run for president. On Tuesday morning, a video surfaced of Cruz telling an Iowan that there is a difference between himself and Trump on immigration: Both want to deport everyone in the country illegally, but Trump wants them to be eligible for US citizenship after they return to their home country and Cruz does not. Marco Rubio of Florida, whom Cruz has sharply criticized for his involvement in immigration reform efforts in 2013.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump may be the rare breed of political prizefighter who warns his opponent exactly where he’s going to throw a punch – and yet still manages to land the blow, more often than not. More recently, Trump has taken to calling Cruz a copycat on the issue, a claim the Texas senator refused to directly address with reporters while campaigning Monday in Iowa. The question has never been tested in court.

“And one of the things that the media loves to do is gaze at their navels for hours on end by a tweet from Donald Trump or from me or from anybody else”.

Trump made the comments as Cruz has passed him in polls in Iowa, which opens the GOP nomination process with caucuses on February 1. Cruz was born in Calgary, Canada, in 1970 while his parents were working in the oil industry.

Rubio, for his part, has been less aggressive going after Cruz on the airwaves in Iowa, instead devoting his focus to New Hampshire. Cruz formally gave up his Canadian citizenship in 2014 – prior to that he held dual citizenship status.

“He’ll quickly cut off the head of ISIS and take their oil”, added the male speaker, referring to the extremists that allegedly inspired the couple responsible for the San Bernardino killings last month.

His campaign said the ad was airing in New Hampshire, which hosts the nation’s first presidential primary on February 9.