What a difference an upcoming midterm makes.President Donald Trump has decided that he now likes fellow Republican Ted Cruz, whom he’d dubbed “Lyin’ Ted Cruz” during the 2016 Republican primary, and has thusly changed his nickname for Cruz to both “Beautiful Ted” and “Texas Ted.”“He’s not Lyin’ Ted anymore,” Trump said to reporters outside the White House on Monday. “He’s Beautiful Ted. He’s Texas — I call him Texas Ted.”Trump is scheduled to appear at a rally in Houston on Monday to campaign for the incumbent GOP senator, who has a too-close-for-comfort lead over progressive challenger Beto O’Rourke. Trump said he is no fan of O’Rourke’s, though he didn’t offer many specifics why.“What I heard about him, he must be something a little special. He’s not,” Trump said of O’Rourke, who has raised more money in three months than any Senate candidate ever has. “I think he’s a highly overrated guy.”Cruz was perhaps Trump’s most serious Republican challenger for the 2016 GOP nomination for president. The campaign took a particularly ugly turn, with Trump publicly threatening to “spill the beans” on Cruz’s wife.
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Trump also accused Cruz’s father of helping to plot the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.“His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald's being — you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous,” Trump said in May 2016.But bygones seem to be bygones: Earlier this year Cruz praised Trump on his first year in office, and he's aligned himself more closely with Trump in recent months ahead of his re-election race.