Several former members of Sen. Ted Cruz's staff called out Donald Trump for softening his stance on immigration, with one calling it "a betrayal."
"It vindicates the speech, it vindicates what Ted Cruz warned would happen during the course of the campaign," Chris Wilson, who served as the Cruz presidential campaign's director of research, analytics, and digital strategy, told Politico.
Also throwing a jab on Trump was Amanda Carpenter, Cruz's former Senate communications director.
"Everything Trump promises comes with an expiration date," Carpenter said. "We knew it during the primary, and now it is apparent he has duped his most loyal supporters on the issue they care about most, immigration. Don't say we didn't warn them."
In recent days, Trump signaled he was softening his stance on immigration — which has served as one of the focal issues during his presidential campaign that began last summer.
On Wednesday, he told Fox News he doesn't support amnesty but hinted at allowing illegal immigrants who have not broken any other laws to remain in the United States.
Trump has said countless times during his campaign he would deport all illegal immigrants from the U.S.
"From what I have seen, he is now the pro-amnesty candidate," Cruz's former communications director Rick Tyler told Politico. "If Trump is insistent on reversing himself on amnesty, then he will have fooled his entire base. It's deceitful; it was a betrayal."
Wilson added that Trump's decision to walk back on one of his top campaign promises is a "mistake by the Trump campaign … It's not the campaign Ted Cruz would have run."
Trump wrote a message on Twitter earlier Wednesday night, teasing his Fox News interview and also highlighting that he still plans to have a border wall built if he becomes president.
Trump postponed an immigration speech originally planned for Thursday as he works on both his message and stance on the divisive issue.
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