--- title: Republican Debate: Donald Trump Declines to Attack Ted Cruz description: Trump declined to criticize Cruz during the Republican debate, despite tensions that seemed to be simmering in recent days. canonical: https://time.com/4150978/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-cnn/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-16T04:08:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:24:56.380Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Plays Nice With Ted Cruz at Debate og:description: "He's just fine" og:url: https://time.com/4150978/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-cnn/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d1ca5d7726e829d/6988758c524fc0ccbadf5f23/republican-debate-gop-presidential-029.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Ted Cruz, Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Plays Nice With Ted Cruz at Debate twitter:description: "He's just fine" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d1ca5d7726e829d/6988758c524fc0ccbadf5f23/republican-debate-gop-presidential-029.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Plays Nice With Ted Cruz at Debate  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 16, 2015 4:08 AM UTC  Donald Trump, left, and Ted Cruz joke with each other during the Republican presidential debate at the Venetian Hotel & Casino on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015, in Las Vegas. Donald Trump, left, and Ted Cruz joke with each other during the Republican presidential debate at the Venetian Hotel & Casino on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015, in Las Vegas.John Locher—AP  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 16, 2015 4:08 AM UTC CNN moderators tried to draw Donald Trump into a fight with Ted Cruz at [the fifth Republican debate Tuesday night](http://time.com/4149585/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-jeb-bush-cnn/)—but uncharacteristically, the frontrunner backed down. The moderators asked Trump about his prior comment that Cruz was a “[maniac](http://time.com/4147393/trump-targets-maniac-cruz/)” when he first arrived in the Senate, and whether that rendered him unqualified to be President. But Trump declined to criticize Cruz, who has been an uneasy frenemy on the campaign trail. “I’ve gotten to know him over the last three or four days, he has a wonderful temperament,” Trump said. “He’s just fine, don’t worry about it.” Trump and Cruz have gone easy on each other throughout the campaign, Cruz because he hopes to eventually scoop up Trump’s supporters. But tensions seemed to be simmering in recent days after [private comments Cruz made about Trump leaked](http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/12/10/ted-cruz-questions-donald-trumps-judgment-to-be-president/?%5Fr=0), and Trump began criticizing Cruz in response. **Read More:** [_Donald Trump Begins Attack on Ted Cruz Over Twitter_](http://time.com/4145796/donald-trump-ted-cruz-fight/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4150978/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-cnn/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4150978/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-cnn/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Plays Nice With Ted Cruz at Debate","datePublished":"2015-12-16T04:08:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:24:56.380Z","description":"\"He's just fine\"","url":"https://time.com/4150978/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-cnn/","keywords":["Debates","2016 Election topic","ted cruz","Donald Trump","Republican debate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d1ca5d7726e829d/6988758c524fc0ccbadf5f23/republican-debate-gop-presidential-029.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d1ca5d7726e829d/6988758c524fc0ccbadf5f23/republican-debate-gop-presidential-029.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ted Cruz, Donald Trump","caption":"Ted Cruz, Donald Trump","creditText":"John Locher—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4150978/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-cnn/","name":"Donald Trump Plays Nice With Ted Cruz at Debate"}}]}] ```