Donald Trump talks Ted Cruz during an interview on "Hannity." Trump on Cruz: He started it

Donald Trump has a new explanation for his latest attacks on Ted Cruz and the Texas senator's background and record: He started it.

“Well, I have to go with my own thinking," the Republican candidate told Fox News' Sean Hannity in an interview aired Thursday night. "Don’t forget, Ted attacked me and then I attacked him. But he started and he attacked me pretty viciously, and you know, first he was laying back, as we know. It was everybody — they said, in the wake. And frankly, he attacked me, Sean."


Hannity had pointed out to Trump recent criticism from conservative pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin, asking the businessman whether it was worth repairing his previously cordial relationship with Cruz or whether he felt he had to continue pressing the attack.

Noting "a lot of respect for" Levin and "tremendous respect for Rush," Trump remarked, "Rush has been great for me. Rush has been so amazing, and Mark’s been pretty good, I mean, Mark likes Ted and I think he likes me."

Trump added that he believed himself to be doing the Republican Party and Cruz a favor by bringing up the issue of the Canadian-born senator's eligibility. (Cruz was, of course, born to an American-born mother in Calgary, Canada, in 1970, and the prevailing legal consensus has been that the issue over his eligibility is a non-starter, though a few lawsuits have been filed.)

"The fact that he was born in Canada, he was a citizen of Canada until just 15 months ago, and he’s got a problem. We have constitutional lawyers that are coming out saying he can’t even run. So how can you have a candidate that you’re gonna pick as the Republican nominee, and he’s not allowed to run for the office of president?" Trump asked Hannity. "That’s a big problem."

Cruz "has some other problems," Trump continued, repeating the fact that Cruz did not disclose loans from Goldman Sachs and Citibank on his 2012 Senate campaign documents.

Later in the same interview, Trump boasted of his newfound support from the so-called Republican establishment, vowing that he would win the general election against Hillary Clinton, whom he termed a "more difficult" challenge than "wacky Bernie" Sanders. Trump added that he thought he would win in Pennsylvania and in Ohio.

"You saw my numbers in Florida, where I’m beating everybody, I’m at 48, and Bush and you know, who was a former governor is like at 9 or 10, and Rubio the senator is at 11. He’s a very low number," Trump said, referring to a recent Florida Atlantic University poll. "And plus I employ tremendous numbers of people in Florida. Florida loves Trump, and I love Florida. So I think I’m going to win Florida."

Trump also mentioned his home state of New York as a place where he feels his campaign would "have a really good chance of winning."

"If we New York, the whole ballgame is over, because nobody ever even anticipates winning New York because it has so many, you know, it’s so powerful in terms of the process that we’re talking about," he went on to explain. "West Virginia, I heard it’s like a lovefest because they understand my feeling toward coal and everything else. But West Virginia, Virginia — I think I’m going to win states that are not on the agenda for Republicans to win.” (The Republican presidential candidate has won West Virginia in every election since 2000.)