Spat over wives turns uglier: After being called 'coward' by Cruz, Trump fires off 'I-told-you-so' tweets

Dane, Wisconsin: Ted Cruz branded Donald Trump a “snivelling coward” Thursday as the feud between the Republican presidential contenders over their wives took a nastier turn. After an earlier and vague threat to “spill the beans” about Heidi Cruz, Trump stoked the spat on Twitter when he retweeted side-by-side images of Cruz’s wife, with an unflattering grimace, and his wife, Melania, in a glamorous pose.

Ted Cruz, campaigning in Wisconsin, was livid. “Leave Heidi the hell alone,” Cruz said, speaking through reporters to Trump. “Donald does seem to have an issue with women,” he said. “Donald doesn’t like strong women. Strong women scare Donald.” Trump was set off this week when a group that opposes him released an ad before the Utah presidential contest raising questions about the propriety of Melania Trump becoming first lady. The ad showed a provocative, decade-old magazine photo of her when she was a model and before she married Trump. Trump wrongly attributed the ad to the Cruz campaign and warned on Twitter:

Trump has a substantial lead in the delegate chase for the Republican nomination. Cruz has a stiff challenge trying to catch him in remaining races and may only have a shot at the nomination if the contest spills into the summer convention. But the war of words about wives (WoWaW, anyone?) didn’t stop there. Here’s how Cruz and Trump continued this oh-so-grown-up debate:

  But, both men have a presidential nomination to secure, so they soon returned to slightly more ’normal’ exchanges:

. @realDonaldTrump has spent decades supporting liberal Democratic politicians. I have not. #ChooseCruz https://t.co/3owwqEr4kZ

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 24, 2016

  And that’s when things took a turn for the slightly crazy and Trump sent out a series of tweets that we feel could have possibly been made in a state of slight inebriation:

Bottomline: Trump told you so! With inputs from AP