RUNNING ON HATE:

 On Tuesday night in Iowa, Trump renewed a two-pronged attack on the Texan's religion and heritage that might signal that the gloves are finally coming off.

Aware that a large portion of the Republican electorate in Iowa is made up of evangelical Christians, Trump brought up Ted Cruz's ancestry in what looked like an attempt to cast doubt on the depth of his attachment to the evangelical movement.

"To the best of my knowledge, not too many evangelicals come out of Cuba, OK? Just remember that, OK? Just remember," Trump said.

It's a line that Trump has used before, but not in weeks, and it deserves a little bit of unpacking.

Cruz, it should be said, isn't from Cuba, though his father is. The senator from Texas was born in Canada to an American citizen mother, making him a citizen of the U.S. from birth. However, what Trump is doing here is reminding voters, who have heard him deriding Hispanic immigrants since the day he launched his campaign, that Cruz is both Hispanic and one generation removed from being an immigrant.

The hidden message here: Ted Cruz isn't really one of us.

Also, if evangelicals don't come out of Cuba, who does? Well, it's either atheistic communists loyal to the Castro regime, or Roman Catholics. Trump, with his vow to prevent Muslims from entering the U.S., has already shown that he is not above using religious differences to fire up his supporters, and that's the second prong of his attack on Cruz - planting doubt about his religious beliefs and suggesting that whatever they are, they aren't the same as those of Iowa voters.

Again, the hidden message: Ted Cruz isn't really one of us.

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