Donald Trump Alleges Ted Cruz 'Stole Iowa' Caucuses In Twitter Rant About Ben Carson Quitting Rumors

UPDATE: 9:48 a.m. EST — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump unleashed a Twitter storm Wednesday morning against Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who won the Iowa caucuses earlier this week, demanding a new election or adjusted results.

Trump began his rant by weighing in on Ben Carson's allegations that the Cruz campaign had falsely told supporters the retired neurosurgeon had dropped out of the race, causing would-be Carson voters to back Cruz instead. Then he called out Cruz for sending out mailers earlier in the week that suggested Iowa residents had received "voter violations" for not participating in previous elections. Trump also expressed frustration with Cruz's recent comments that the tycoon had an "identical position on healthcare" to the Democratic presidential candidates — a claim PolitiFact later rated "false."

In order, the top five GOP Iowa caucus winners were Cruz, Trump, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Carson and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. Paul dropped out of the primary race Wednesday morning just as Trump began tweeting.

Original story:

Republican front-runner and billionaire Donald Trump went on a Twitter rant against Ted Cruz Wednesday, suggesting that the Texas senator "stole" his victory in this week's Iowa caucuses.

Trump came in second in the state's GOP primary race Monday, scoring 24.3 percent of the vote to Cruz's 27.6 percent. But Wednesday, the mogul appeared to be criticizing Cruz on behalf of another candidate: retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

Carson, who came in fourth in the Iowa caucuses with 9.3 percent of the vote, accused Cruz of playing "dirty tricks." Carson said Cruz's campaign spread misinformation to grassroots leaders right before Monday night's caucuses that the doctor had dropped out of the race, when in reality he was just traveling home to "get a fresh set of clothes," the Hill reported.

Cruz apologized Tuesday for the misunderstanding. "What the team then should have done was send around the follow-up statement from the Carson campaign clarifying that he was indeed staying in the race when that came out," Cruz said. "This was a mistake from our end, and for that I apologize to Dr. Carson."

Trump's tweets could be referencing a Monday message from Iowa Rep. Steve King, who endorsed Cruz in November. On Monday night, King tweeted that "Carson looks like he is out. Iowans need to know before they vote. Most will go to Cruz, I hope."