Trump embraces role as bully, bids Perry a thorny farewell

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A growing divide has emerged in the Republican Party's unruly presidential contest, as the race bid farewell to a once-powerful White House contender.

A day after Rick Perry, Texas' longest-serving governor, ended his second Republican presidential run with a whimper, Trump marked the shake-up by embracing his role as his party's 2016 bully on Saturday.

Perry had all but declared war on the billionaire businessman in July, calling Trump "a cancer on conservatism" who could destroy the Republican Party.

[...] with the real estate mogul suffocating the rest of the packed field, it's likely a matter of time before he helps push another GOP candidate out of the race.

Perry was a leading voice in the anti-Trump movement, a group that has suffered in the polls as Trump's public allies largely avoid backlash from the anti-insider wave that made Trump the unlikeliest of Republican presidential front-runners.

[...] I think the American people could not care less, Cruz told reporters after addressing the same gathering of social conservatives in St. Louis that Perry shocked the night before with his announcement.

Trump favors tax increases on the rich, once supported abortion rights, gave money to Hillary Rodham Clinton and said kind things about government-run health care in other countries.

Cruz on Saturday said Perry did "a remarkable job as governor" and praised him for running "an honorable campaign."