Trump raises questions about Cruzs precarious Canadian birth

Trump replied: “Republicans are going to have to ask themselves the question: ‘Do we want a candidate who could be tied up in court for two years?’ That’d be a big problem”.

Trump said in a Wednesday interview on Fox News he wants Cruz to “get some kind of an order” from a court to block any potential lawsuit challenging his citizenship.

As the interview progressed, he added that he would hate to see such a thing happen to Cruz, but he noted that the issue is now in the public domain and a lot people are already talking about it.

“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.

Meantime, when we asked Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler about Cruz ever having a “double passport”, Tyler replied that Cruz had “never” had a Canadian passport or, he said by email, applied for one.

According to the American constitution, the presidency of the United States can only be held by “natural born citizens”.

It’s an awkward issue for Cruz, who found out about his Canadian citizenship in recent years and renounced it in 2014. He first reacted on Twitter, posting a link to a video from the 1970s television show “Happy Days” showing the character Fonzie water skiing over a shark.

The Monday exchange in Boone began with a questioner noting, “You and Donald Trump are really strong on immigration, but he supports deporting all the illegal immigrants-are you willing to say the same?”

“I think there’s a scholarly consensus, but it’s not a done deal”, said Sarah Helene Duggin, a professor at the Catholic University of America. The idea of trying to delegitimate the first viable black candidate for president by effectively claiming he is a not a real American is just too Freudian for words.

Prior to a Trump rally in Lowell, Mass., the Post asked Trump about Cruz’s Canadian roots. As the Atlantic’s David Graham pointed out in May 2013, “The Constitution says that the president must be a natural-born citizen”.

But the latest reversal comes as Cruz is seriously threatening Trump’s lead in Iowa and elsewhere – especially with evangelical voters critical to winning the Hawkeye State’s caucuses on Feburary 1st. “I hear it was checked out by every attorney and every which way and I understand Ted is in fine shape”, he said. And Cruz will get some sympathy even from righties who might not otherwise look warmly upon him if Trump insists on painting him as some sort of foreigner who should have his presidential hopes cashiered by a judge at a moment when he’s winning.

But that didn’t stop Trump from raising the issue Tuesday.

Trump and Cruz share cordial relations bordering on friendship.

Cruz defended himself in a tweet after the comments were released. He was the star of the popular “The Apprentice”, his name is plastered on high-rise and hotel buildings across the country and he has dominated news coverage over the last six months.