By: Regina Wright ~Staff Writer~
When the caucus came to a close on Monday night in Iowa, Donald Trump initially offered Sen. Ted Cruz congratulations on his win, after which Trump went silent on social media for more than 15 hours and avoided news interviews.
Trump broke his silence on Tuesday by expressing his frustration with voters for not appreciating his self-fundraising campaign and with the media for overestimating his pull in Iowa.
Then on Wednesday, Donald Trump went on a 95-minute Twitter rampage accusing Cruz of voter fraud.
“Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it,” Trump tweeted on Feb. 3. “That’s why all the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!”
Conspiracy theories started circulating from Trump’s tweets.
“During primetime of the Iowa Caucus, Cruz put out a release that @RealBenCarson was quitting the race, and to caucus (or vote) for Cruz,” Trump tweeted. “Many people voted for Cruz over Carson because of this Cruz fraud. Also, Cruz sent out a VOTER VIOLATION certificate to thousands of voters.”
The Voter Violation certificate Trump referred to was an attached image in his tweets showing a letter sent to Iowa residents that graded them based on their voting turnout history as well as that of their neighbors.
The “certificate” and envelope it was sent in did not mention Cruz or contain any material alluding to his campaign.
“Trump puts more time and effort into accusing others than he does promoting himself and what he would do,” Jordan Hendershot said, a sophomore Occupational Therapy Major. “His actions are shameful and humiliating to the country.”
Trump’s theories were only the beginning.

His followers circulated his theories along with their own, including one about rigged Microsoft tablet software, which boosted Marco Rubio’s points and took away from Trump’s.
“Donald Trump isn’t acting like an adult, and if he can’t act professional about his loss then he shouldn’t run for president,” sophomore Devon James said.
“Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified,” Trump tweeted near the end of his tirade on on Twitter.
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