Wait, Ted Cruz wants to nuke ISIS?

And in Des Moines last Saturday, Cruz announced the “Cruz Crew Strike Force” and opening of “Camp Cruz”, rented apartments to lodge hundreds of volunteers from across the country coming to campaign for Cruz in Iowa. But a lot of pronouncements, whether outrageous or mainstream, could find some support – and lots of candidates are willing to make them. He’s the only candidate most Republicans are hearing about.

But the billionaire businessman had refrained from attacked Cruz, even as the Texas senator has surged in opinion polls, becoming Trump’s most serious challenger in early-voting Iowa.

Trump took a new approach at the event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, standing on a riser in the center of supporters, and speaking without a lectern. Donald Trump, for example, disqualified himself by not attending the group’s forum, and Vander Plaats expressed concerns about Marco Rubio’s role in the “Gang of Eight”, calling his position on immigration “a hurdle that’s going to be very steep for Marco Rubio to clear”. A Bloomberg poll released Wednesday showed that a full 65% of likely Republican primary voters approve of Trump’s plan.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) all suspended their Oval Office bids earlier this year after personally challenging the real estate tycoon.

Rubio, who has been running an increasingly aggressive campaign against Cruz, was in Iowa on Thursday. Although Cruz and his fellow sponsors expect the legislation to fail, they believe it is an important survey of who supports health care reform.

Donald Trump is greeted on stage by Ted Cruz before speaking at a rally against the Iran nuclear deal in Washington on September 9, 2015. PredictWise shows it’s still Rubio who has the best chance of winning the Republican nomination. Cruz has raised the second most money in the GOP race.

Vander Plaats said he will ask the next president to ignore the Supreme Court’s ruling that made marriage equality the law of the land. Tracy Jan writes that the “latest glimpse of his strategy to target arch-conservative voters came this week, when Cruz offered only muted disagreement with Donald Trump’s call to close the borders to Muslims and refused to join the other Republican candidates in denouncing Trump for the idea”: Boston Globe. Voters there are being exposed to a more balanced flow of information.

Already, in a preview of attacks to come, Hillary Clinton has jumped on Trump’s remarks as evidence of the GOP’s broader prejudices: “As Mr. Trump said in an interview this morning, ‘They condemn practically everything I say, and then they always come to my side, ‘” Clinton noted Tuesday in a Medium post.

Vander Plaats is seen as one of the most influential kingmakers in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

“When we make an endorsement, our goal is to make that endorsement stick”, he said.