--- title: Donald Trump Aide: Ted Cruz Campaign Uses ‘Gestapo Tactics’ description: Donald Trump’s new campaign aide accused Ted Cruz’s campaign of using “Gestapo tactics” in the race to secure delegates. canonical: https://time.com/4287819/donald-trump-aide-ted-cruz-gestapo/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-10T17:52:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T09:28:07.814Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Aide Says Ted Cruz Campaign Uses ‘Gestapo Tactics’ og:description: "They are not playing by the rules" og:url: https://time.com/4287819/donald-trump-aide-ted-cruz-gestapo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt80234eb3e3acefb0/69888e658e0601413c4655e1/paul-manafort-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Meet the Press - Season 68 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Aide Says Ted Cruz Campaign Uses ‘Gestapo Tactics’ twitter:description: "They are not playing by the rules" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt80234eb3e3acefb0/69888e658e0601413c4655e1/paul-manafort-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Aide Says Ted Cruz Campaign Uses ‘Gestapo Tactics’  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Apr 10, 2016 5:52 PM UTC  Paul Manafort appears on "Meet the Press" in Washington, D.C. on April 10, 2016. Paul Manafort appears on "Meet the Press" in Washington, D.C. on April 10, 2016.NBC NewsWire—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Apr 10, 2016 5:52 PM UTC Donald Trump’s new convention manager on Sunday [accused Ted Cruz’s campaign of using “Gestapo tactics”](http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/trump-s-new-right-hand-man-accuses-cruz-campaign-gestapo-n553721) in the race to secure delegates. Paul Manafort, a veteran strategist who the Republican presidential frontrunner [recently hired](http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/03/28/donald-trump-hires-paul-manafort-to-lead-delegate-effort/) to lead efforts to gather delegates, compared Cruz’s campaign tactics to those of Nazi Germany’s secret police during his first Sunday show interview since joining Trump’s team. “He’s threatening,” Manafort said about Cruz on NBC’s _Meet the Press_. “You go to these county conventions, and you see the tactics, Gestapo tactics, the scorched-earth tactics.” “We’re going to be filing several protests because reality is, you know, they are not playing by the rules,” he added. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4287819/donald-trump-aide-ted-cruz-gestapo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4287819/donald-trump-aide-ted-cruz-gestapo/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Aide Says Ted Cruz Campaign Uses ‘Gestapo Tactics’","datePublished":"2016-04-10T17:52:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:28:07.814Z","description":"\"They are not playing by the rules\"","url":"https://time.com/4287819/donald-trump-aide-ted-cruz-gestapo/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt80234eb3e3acefb0/69888e658e0601413c4655e1/paul-manafort-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt80234eb3e3acefb0/69888e658e0601413c4655e1/paul-manafort-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Meet the Press - Season 68","caption":"Paul Manafort appears on \"Meet the Press\" in Washington, D.C. on April 10, 2016.","creditText":"NBC NewsWire—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images","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/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4287819/donald-trump-aide-ted-cruz-gestapo/","name":"Donald Trump Aide Says Ted Cruz Campaign Uses ‘Gestapo Tactics’"}}]}] ```