Donald Trump Claims Ted Cruz "Stole" the Iowa Caucuses, and Calls for a Do-Over

So much for the humbling of Donald Trump.

After a remarkably muted (for him) response to finishing second in the Iowa caucuses behind rival Ted Cruz, the Republican presidential hopeful was back in full righteous rage mode Wednesday.

Trump fired off a barrage of morning tweets accusing Cruz of having "stolen" the Hawkeye State vote with underhanded tactics and demanded, yes, a rematch.

Trump cited reports the Cruz campaign had spread word that once-popular rival Ben Carson was pulling out of the GOP contest, just as Iowans headed to the caucus sites. (Cruz later apologized for what Carson condemned as "dirty tricks.")

Continuing the tweetstorm, Trump also pointed to a much-criticized Cruz mailer mocked up to look like an official notice from election authorities and geared at shaming Iowans into voting for him.

Trump had sounded a much softer, even humbler note after Cruz — who built a more advanced Iowa ground game and made a heavy play for evangelical conservative voters — nosed past him by about 3 percentage points in the Iowa race.

But Trump, a man not exactly famous for reminding people there's no "I" in "team," got even hotter on Twitter on Wednesday morning before deleting his initial Cruz missile and rewording it.

The Cruz campaign didn't immediately respond to the criticism from Trump, who holds commanding leads in polls of likely voters in next week's first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary.