Cooper Allen

USA TODAY

Donald Trump's speech Monday night in Iowa after his surprising loss in the caucuses was perhaps most noteworthy for its graciousness.

"I want to congratulate Ted, and I want to congratulate all of the incredible candidates," Trump told supporters in West Des Moines, saying he was "honored" to finish second.

Was this the beginning of a kinder, gentler Trump? Well.....

"Ted Cruz didn't win Iowa, he stole it," Trump tweeted Wednesday morning in the opening salvo of a series of tweets eviscerating Cruz.

The billionaire doubled down on his comments in an On the Record interview with Fox's Greta Van Susteren Wednesday night.

"He really lies. I don't like to use that term, but he really lies," Trump said. "What he did was a fraud."

The impetus for Trump's fraud accusation appeared to be an erroneous claim disseminated from Cruz's campaign Monday night during the caucuses that Ben Carson was poised to drop out of the race. Cruz later apologized for the incident, saying his team should have distributed a "follow-up statement from the Carson campaign clarifying that he was indeed staying in the race when that came out."

"What he did was a disgrace," Trump told Van Susteren. "And it's a disgrace to the electoral process."

But Trump didn't stop there as he leveled other claims against Cruz, including that the Texas senator falsely suggested he supported Obamacare.

He concluded by calling for a redo of the caucuses or for Cruz's win to be ruled invalid.

Cruz fired back later Wednesday, saying in one tweet that this "yet another #Trumpertantrum."

Needless to say, holding the Iowa caucuses for a second time seems rather unlikely, but these latest broadsides should only intensify the increasingly contentious battle between Trump and Cruz.