--- title: Donald Trump: Cruz 'Illegally Stole' Iowa Caucus Win description: Trump chastised Cruz for misinforming voters about Ben Carson dropping out of the race canonical: https://time.com/4205867/trump-cruz-illegally-stole-iowa-caucus-win/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-03T14:08:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T19:14:04.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump: Cruz 'Illegally Stole' Iowa Caucus Win og:description: He called for Cruz’s win to be nullified, or for a new Iowa vote og:url: https://time.com/4205867/trump-cruz-illegally-stole-iowa-caucus-win/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23ee8cd060baae35/69887bf00b72e3bddb6e7f42/donald-trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: donald-trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump: Cruz 'Illegally Stole' Iowa Caucus Win twitter:description: He called for Cruz’s win to be nullified, or for a new Iowa vote twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23ee8cd060baae35/69887bf00b72e3bddb6e7f42/donald-trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump: Cruz 'Illegally Stole' Iowa Caucus Win by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) and [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) Updated: Dec 13, 2023 7:14 PM UTCPublished: Feb 3, 2016 2:08 PM UTC  Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to an overflow crowd during a campaign event at Hampshire Hills Athletic Club on February 2, 2016 in Milford, Iowa. Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to an overflow crowd during a campaign event at Hampshire Hills Athletic Club on February 2, 2016 in Milford, Iowa.Joe Raedle—Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) and [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) Updated: Dec 13, 2023 7:14 PM UTCPublished: Feb 3, 2016 2:08 PM UTC 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](https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/694878854729621505) and calling for Cruz’s win to be [nullified](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/694890328273346560) 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.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4205867/trump-cruz-illegally-stole-iowa-caucus-win/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4205867/trump-cruz-illegally-stole-iowa-caucus-win/"},"headline":"Trump: Cruz 'Illegally Stole' Iowa Caucus Win","datePublished":"2016-02-03T14:08:34.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T19:14:04.000Z","description":"He called for Cruz’s win to be nullified, or for a new Iowa vote","url":"https://time.com/4205867/trump-cruz-illegally-stole-iowa-caucus-win/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23ee8cd060baae35/69887bf00b72e3bddb6e7f42/donald-trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt23ee8cd060baae35/69887bf00b72e3bddb6e7f42/donald-trump.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"donald-trump","caption":"MILFORD, NH - FEBRUARY 02: Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to an overflow crowd during a campaign event at Hampshire Hills Athletic Club on February 2, 2016 in Milford, Iowa. 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