Cruz: Trump ‘could be unstoppable’ if he wins Iowa

Trump positioned himself as a more credible presidential candidate than Cruz, the Texas senator who casts himself as a principled lawmaker but whom critics call inflexible. “He could run for the Prime Minister of Canada and I wouldn’t even complain because he was born in Canada”, Trump joked.

Grassley may not endorse anyone before the primary on February 1, but if he does, his word will carry a lot of weight with Iowa Republicans.

Trump, it seems, is benefiting from a political flawless storm just before Iowa casts its votes. “To give that man the full power and scope of the office of the presidency is something we will grow to regret”. Beck then loaned Cruz one of his prize possessions: a compass Beck said was the only one ever used by George Washington. When you deal with a president that says ‘I have a phone and a pen and it doesn’t really matter that there is a Congress, ‘ it really doesn’t matter there is a Constitution…. They say I have the most loyal people.

As the back-fence chatter builds that the Republican establishment is beginning to embrace Donald Trump, the Iowa GOP chairman introduced the controversial presidential contender at his rally in Muscatine Sunday. Mediaite re-posted Trump’s repudiation of Beck on Thursday, noting that he dismissed the radio host and bestselling author as a “wacko“.

The Fox poll has a fairly large 5-point margin of error, higher than its last two polls, but the underlying trend towards Trump is unmistakable. Referring to “horrible” and “scum” media, Trump said: “I hate some of these people, I hate ’em”. “…That doesn’t mean he’s not giving us a fight in Iowa”. He told the crowd the chances of Trump winning the nomination are a “snowball in hell” and derided the real estate mogul’s “strip clubs and casinos”.

The endorsement was billed as the first time Beck has formally thrown his support behind a presidential candidate.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was the third with 9.7 percent, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was the choice of 9.2 percent of those surveyed and Florida Senator Marco Rubio received 7.2 percent support.

MARTIN: So has Donald Trump changed his message at all or sort of fine-tuned it for this final week before the caucuses in addition to the Sarah Palin endorsement which was very eye-catching?