Donald Trump cancels planned trip to Israel

As the Republican Party has grappled with how to handle an anti-establishment candidate like Trump, Cruz has separated himself from others by publicly positioning himself closely to the frontrunner.

The poll (paywall) shows that 57 percent of Americans do not agree with Trump, who earlier this week called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on”.

Dec 12, 2015- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has rebuked Republican campaign rival Donald Trump saying “I no longer think he is funny”.

Play video “What Do You Want To Say To Trump?”

“I really think he needs somebody to calm him down, you know”. According to a recent poll by The New York Times and CBS, Americans are now more afraid of a terrorist attack than at any point since after 9/11, and, like Trump, Cruz is aggressive on immigration and national security.

For five months, Cruz has refused to criticize Trump even as the rest of the Republican field turned on him for a series of incendiary comments.

Forty-one percent of Republicans polled said Trump’s remarks could hurt his chances of becoming president; that figure was higher among all respondents.

“My approach, much to the frustration of media, is to bear hug both of them and smother them with love”, Cruz said.

Trump also took a veiled shot at Cruz’s family background.

“The Establishment’s only hope: Trump & me in a cage match”, Cruz tweeted.

It’s the most critical language of Trump to come from Cruz in the race.

Trump, whose campaign has been marked by controversy from the beginning, stood by his anti-Muslim proposal on Tuesday, saying it was a temporary move in response to last week’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.

Alan Abramowitz, a political science professor at Emory University, said Trump’s comments on Muslims were not that different from previous statements, pointing to Trump’s idea to establish a registry of Muslims in the United States as an example.

Mr Trump told Fox News there were many reasons he made a decision to hold off on the trip, among them that he did not want to put Mr Netanyahu in a hard position.