Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz has come out swinging against his chief rival, businessman Donald Trump, using what his campaign views as a wedge issue to attack Trump as part of the problem, not the solution.
At issue is Trump’s previous use of eminent domain to advance his business interests.
According to reports, for now, the theme appears to be being given particular emphasis by Team Cruz in New Hampshire.
In the eyes of Ted Cruz, here’s another “New York value” embodied by Donald Trump: seizing private people’s property to build skyscrapers with his name on it.
As the rivalry blooms between the Republican field’s top presidential contenders, Cruz and his allies are eyeing a major opportunity in this rural state to cast Trump as an overly zealous land-grabber, profit-driven elitist and big-government liberal, prioritizing commercial interests like his own over conservative values.
Friday, Cruz made eminent domain the feature of his first negative ad against Trump. Alleging that Trump had destroyed the home of an elderly woman in Atlantic City in order to build a limousine parking lot at his casino, Cruz claims that Trump “won’t change the system. He’s what’s wrong with it.”
“Trump, with his casinos, he can take the land because it’s in his best interest,” former Sen. Bob Smith, a Cruz co-chairman, said here. “It’s a big deal here, but I don’t think it’s gotten much publicity — but I think it will.”