Trump: Cruz ‘Illegally Stole’ Iowa Caucus Win

Trump chastised Cruz for misinforming voters about Ben Carson dropping out of the race

Donald Trump isn't taking losing the Iowa caucuses lightly. After a brief effort to appear statesmanlike and spin his success positively, Trump is now accusing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz of stealing his first-place victory and calling for Cruz's win to be nullified or for a new Iowa vote to take place.

"Ted Cruz didn't win Iowa, he illegally stole it," Trump wrote in a tweet, since deleted. "That is why all of the polls were so wrong any[sic] why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!"

https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/694878854729621505

Trump quickly deleted his original tweet, and then tweeted it again without the word "illegally" and fixing the typo.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/694879900256354304

Trump went on to reference allegations that Cruz's campaign wrongly telling caucus-goers that Ben Carson was dropping out of the race—a tactic Cruz apologized for Tuesday.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/694882228665507840

He went on to call for action to remedy what he saw as inappropriate action.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/694890328273346560

On Tuesday, Trump declared the Cruz campaign's efforts around Carson "a disgrace."

"What he did to Ben Carson was terrible," Trump said. "When they said Ben Carson is out of the race and come vote for him, I thought it was terrible."