April 19, 2018

Ted Cruz’s Blurb on Trump as One of Time’s Most 100 Influential People Is … Something

Quite the flip flop!

Michael Brochstein/Zumapress

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Since Donald Trump and Ted Cruz first faced off in the Republican presidential primaries in 2016, the president has repeatedly and sometimes viciously attacked the Texas senator. He accused Cruz’s father of assisting in the assassination of JFK, cruelly mocked Cruz’s wife, and, as is the president’s habit, gave Cruz a derogatory nickname, “Lyin’ Ted.”

Cruz, in turn, has not held back in his criticisms of Trump. He’s called him a “narcissist,” “utterly amoral,” and a “pathological liar.” And after dropping out of the the primary, he famously refused to endorse Trump, even during his speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention. From the convention stage, he asked the crowd to “vote your conscience.” 

But that all must be water under the bridge, right? On Thursday Time published its list of the 100 most influential people, and, it turns out, Trump’s one-time foe actually penned the blurb about the president’s inestimable power and influence. Cruz calls Trump “a flash-bang grenade thrown into Washington by the forgotten men and women of America.” He continues, “The fact that his first year as Commander in Chief disoriented and distressed members of the media and political establishment is not a bug but a feature.” 

Twitter had a field day with Cruz’s effusive praise: 

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

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