Trump adviser calls Cruz ‘sleazy’ at lunch with Nevadans

CLEVELAND — A Donald Trump adviser criticized Ted Cruz while speaking at a lunch with Nevada delegates Thursday, one day after the U.S. senator from Texas was booed off the stage at the Republican National Convention.

About 50 Nevada delegates and alternate delegates heard from Tana Goertz, who also did a stint as a contestant on “The Apprentice,” Trump’s former reality show.

Trump doesn’t need the job and is losing money by running for office, putting up with a lot along the way, she said.

To make her point, she took aim at the former Trump rival. Cruz was booed on the stage in Cleveland when he didn’t endorse Trump during his speech.

“We just saw that last night with sleazy Ted Cruz,” she said.

“I was skeptical when he stepped up on that stage,” she said, adding “I knew in my gut” that Cruz wasn’t “going to do the right thing.”

“Ladies, when a man shows you who he is once, believe him,” she said.

Goertz spent little time dwelling on Cruz. The bulk of her message focused on Trump, praising him as a man devoted to his family who cares about others and does quiet acts of charity.

Trump, she said, is someone who took a chance on her as a single parent with two children

“To be mentored by Donald Trump for 18 weeks was life-changing,” she said.

She didn’t win the TV show but she and Trump stayed in touch, she said.

She shared insights from the campaign trail, like when Trump was at an event in Iowa and he came down from the podium to hug a disabled veteran struggling to access medical care from the Veterans Administration.

“Mr. Trump finds value in every single one of us because he genuinely loves people,” she said.

Contact Ben Botkin at bbotkin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenBotkin1 on Twitter.