Trump’s past attacks of other candidates were done in response to him being attached by them. Trump’s attacks on Cruz, however, are because Cruz is polling ahead of him in Iowa and gaining strength in other states.
That’s the difference, and why Trump’s attacks benefited him previously, but will not, against Cruz.
BINGO!
To support what you say here, it’s noteworthy that Trump has only once backed off criticism of one of his fellow candidates. That was went he called Cruz a “maniac.”
The next day, very influential conservative voices - notably Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin - who had to that point given Trump a pass on his ideological apostacies, began fiercely attacking him.
It was pretty clear that Trump (or his people) quickly concluded that it would be unwise to have the full force of these two in focused opposition to him. Having the MSM mock him is one thing - that’s a badge of honor among conservatives. But if Levin and Limbaugh take the YUGE amount of available evidence that Trump is no movement conservative and start hammering him with it night after night? That would really have hurt him - and Trump knew it.
So how did he respond, given a chance to slam Cruz at the next debate? By saying Cruz’s temperament is “just fine.”
No coincidence, that.
Hank