Ted Cruz plagiarizes ​The American President to intimidate Donald Trump

Sen. Ted Cruz took a break from quoting his favorite movie The Princess Bride on Wednesday to lift a line from another classic, The American President. Whether or not the Texas senator was aware, his retort to Donald Trump's recent attacks on his wife was almost identical to that of President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas), who hits back against his prime political foe in defense of love interest Sydney Ellen Wade:

Ted Cruz literally lifted a line from The American President pic.twitter.com/BdG7Qcr4Ye

— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) March 23, 2016

Cruz's cinematic defense of wife Heidi follows Trump's tweet Tuesday threatening to "spill the beans" on his wife since Cruz "used a picture of Melania from a GQ shoot in his ad." Cruz responded by pointing out that he had nothing to do with the ad, which was created by a super PAC that supports him, and tweeted that if Trump tries to attack his wife, he is "more of a coward than I thought."