Attacks were echoed by Trump who blasted the Republican party for trying to subvert his campaign with 'crooked

He has been at the helm of Trump's delegate team for just three days, but Paul Manafort has already shown he will be pulling no punches when it comes to the billionaire's rivals.

Speaking to NBC's Meet The Press on Sunday, Manafort accused Cruz's team of 'Gestapo tactics, scorched-earth tactics' when it comes to the scrap for delegates.

Manafort also suggested that the Texas senator's team have been resorting to threats and intimidation in order to secure backers.

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Paul Manafort, Trump's new top aide, accused Ted Cruz of attempting to cheat his way to victory in the Republican race on Sunday, adding that he is using 'Gestapo' intimidation tactics to win delegates

Manafort's comments were echoed on the campaign trail by Trump, who blasted the political process and accused the Republican party of 'disenfranchising' the voters

Asked whether threatening delegates in order to win them over was fair game, Manafort responded: 'It's not my style, and it's not Donald Trump's style, but it is Ted Cruz's style.'

Without mentioning specific incidents, he added: 'We're going to be filing several protests because reality is, you know, they are not playing by the rules.'

While this is the first time Manafort has hit out at Cruz, his rhetoric simply echoes the message the Trump camp has been putting out since voting started.

Following Cruz's win in the Iowa caucus, Trump's team accused Cruz of stealing the vote by suggesting that Ben Carson had dropped out of the race, when he was in fact still running.

Since then The Donald has dubbed Cruz 'Lyin' Ted', a moniker he repeats often both on his Twitter page and in person at his rallies.

Later on Sunday, Cruz put out a statement refuting Manafort's claims, and accusing him of attempting to distract from Trump's recent defeat in Wisconsin primary.

The loss, by a margin of 13 points, was particularly humiliating for Trump coming after a week of bad press in a state he once led in polls.

Cruz said: 'It's no surprise that Trump's team will lash out with falsehoods when facing a loss to distract from their failure, as they have the entire time.

'We have earned our success by working hard to build a superior organization and are working within the process and rules that have been established- which has led now to four consecutive wins, 12 wins total.'

Perhaps sensing the nomination slipping from his grasp as the possibility of a contested convention looms ever larger, Trump lambasted the electoral process at a rally in Rochester, New York.

Cruz hit back at Manafort, accusing him of spreading 'falsehoods' in order 'to distract from their failure' following Trump's defeat in the Wisconsin primary, a state where he once led in the polls

Trump has long attacked Cruz for his tactics on the campaign trail, accusing him of cheating after the first caucus in Iowa, and more recently branding him 'Lyin' Ted'

Speaking to a crowd of thousands inside a frigid aircraft hangar, Trump said 'it's not right' that the person who wins the most votes may not be the nominee.

He said: 'You know what? They're taking your vote away. They're disenfranchising people.

'I say this to the RNC and I say it to the Republican Party: You're going to have a big problem, folks, because the people don't like what's going on.

'What we have going is a movement. Now, they're trying to subvert the movement. They can't do it with bodies. They can't do it with people because they don't have near the people that we have.

'So what they're trying to do is subvert the movement with crooked shenanigans. And we're just not going to let it happen.'

Before the appointment of Manafort, Trump's campaign team appeared to be outwitted by the finer points of the political process when it comes to securing delegates.

For example in Louisiana, where the billionaire won with an unexpected three per cent margin, Cruz may secure more delegates because his staffers showed up to take part in the Republican Party's post-election procedural wrangling.

Trump added: 'We've got a corrupt system. It's not right. We're supposed to be a democracy. We're supposed to be: You vote and the vote means something, all right?

'You vote, and the vote means something. And we've got to do something about it.'