After a bad week in the press the Trump campaign was hoping for a surprise win in the Wisconsin primary, where Ted Cruz has been leading the polls. Unfortunately for Donald Trump, he was trounced thoroughly by the Texas Senator on Tuesday, losing by 13 points. Instead of retreating with his campaign to plan a strategy going forward Donald Trump’s campaign lashed out against Cruz, accusing him of being a “puppet…a Trojan Horse” for the GOP and perhaps more seriously accused him of colluding with a Super PAC.

In a statement yesterday the Trump campaign claimed that Ted Cruz “was coordinating with his own Super PACs, who totally control him.” They did not go on to offer any proof however, and no evidence of this has come to light. Coordinating with a PAC is illegal, and a serious offense. The Trump campaign used similar accusations about an attack ad in Utah a few weeks ago, as well as a multitude of other baseless claims, with a similar lack of evidence.

While these statements from Trump have no evidence to back him up, it does bring up an important and hazy point on how much coordinating between candidates and PACs is going on. According to the Washington Post, Ted Cruz has appeared at several functions in Wisconsin in the last week put on by the Keep The Promise PAC. Appearing at these functions alone is not considered coordination by the Federal Election Commission as long as strategies and specifics on the race are not discussed.

Sources:
http://townhall.com/election/2016/primary-results
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/04/06/the-media-just-helped-donald-trump-spread-another-dubious-charge-against-ted-cruz/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3525667/Ted-Cruz-expected-slow-Trump-train-double-digit-win-Wisconsin-primary-exit-poll-numbers-roll-in.html