CLEVELAND _ Fresh off his marathon Republican convention acceptance speech, Donald Trump looked backward Friday, rekindling his feud with onetime chief rival Ted Cruz.
Trump, in classic style, essentially said he couldn't care less that Cruz declined to endorse him in a dramatic snub at the convention.
"I don't want his endorsement," Trump said at a hastily arranged speech to volunteers in Cleveland. "If he gives it, I will not accept it."
The moment resembled so many that have punctuated Trump's unlikely candidacy for president: relitigating past skirmishes at a time when his campaign could be taking a victory lap, this time over a fairly well-received nomination acceptance speech that helped salvage a rocky convention.
Trump held forth in the freewheeling morning event, dredging up past arguments with the Cruz team, including attacks on Cruz's wife and father, at a time when attention was shifting Friday to the general election and Democrat Hillary Clinton's anticipated announcement of her vice-presidential pick.
"I didn't start anything with the wife," Trump said of the attack ads during the primary, which he retweeted, that featured an unflattering photo of Heidi Cruz. He blamed it on the PAC that ran the ad.
Heidi Cruz, he said, is the "best thing" Cruz has going for him, and, "by the way, is a very nice woman and a very beautiful woman."
But the lack of an endorsement from Ted Cruz was his main point of contention.
"He should have done it," Trump said, suggesting that doing so would have set up the Texan better for a potential presidential run later.
Then again, Trump said he doubted Cruz could win the White House.
"Maybe I'll set up a super PAC if he decides to run," Trump said, then turned to his own lawyer in the audience. "Are you allowed to set up a super PAC, if you are the president, to fight somebody?"
