Top Trump ally: Cruz is ‘self-absorbed, little man’

CLEVELAND — Donald Trump’s top surrogate on Capitol Hill on Thursday ripped into Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for refusing to endorse the GOP presidential nominee, calling the Texas senator “a self-absorbed, little man” and declaring that his political career is now over.

{mosads}”America now knows the Ted Cruz that Washington has known for several years: self-absorbed, narcissistic — it’s all about Ted Cruz. That’s the reason [Cruz] has no friends in the Senate,” Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), who was the first lawmaker to endorse Trump, said to The Hill.

“So I think he’s ended his political career,” Collins continued, “but in doing so disappointed his own political supporters, who may not be enthusiastic about Mr. Trump but were all about unity of the party and defeating [presumptive Democratic presidential nominee] Hillary [Clinton].”

As he delivered a prime-time speech at the Republican National Convention, Cruz was booed and heckled by Trump supporters as it became clear that Trump’s fiercest rival in the GOP primary would not be endorsing the nominee. The Trump campaign had hoped Cruz would extend an olive branch to Trump in his address; instead, he used the opportunity to urge his supporters to “vote their conscience.”

“Ted Cruz couldn’t even bring himself to that place and in doing so is booed even by many of his supporters and the Texas delegation,” Collins said. “America is now done with Ted Cruz.

“Now that they’ve seen the Ted Cruz we’ve known in Washington, the self-absorbed, little man, I think they will say, ‘OK, I’m good with Trump.’ … Ted Cruz is now done politically.”

Said another House Republican who backs Trump and is here in Cleveland: “I believe that many of Cruz’s backers are going to let Cruz walk over the cliff by himself.”

— This report was updated at 11:09 a.m.