That's the thing: his "unmistakable points" are more calculated and wishy washy than they are "laser focused." This is just one more example of it.
In college he won several (not one, but several) national debate contests but, clearly, you are not able to appreciate. I hesitate to venture a guess as to why.
The very straight forward way to box Cruz on this is to ask him “Are there Muslim countries whose Islamic adherents do not wish us harm? Would you please name which ones they are?”
Cruz would be in trouble, and his “weaselly lawyer language” would not extract his posterior from the hook he has just hung it on - because every single Muslim Country has some percentage of its population that desires to wage jihad against the West in general, and the United States in particular. There is no parsing that fact.
Trump has Cruz boxed on this, and he knows it. The problem with Senator Cruz and most politicos is that they always attempt to “ride two horses with one ass.” Trump understands their dishonest game, and he knows how to rip the rug out from under those who play it.
IMO, Senator Cruz just made a fatal mistake, in giving his parsed statement about restricting immigration only from those specific Muslim countries where ISIS prevails ... Whether he knows it or not, he just lost. Most Americans are wise to the fact, or at least suspect, that every Islamic country is full of these barbarians ... And the published percentages prove them correct. Every single Islamic country is corrupt, to a greater or lesser degree, with jihad-worshiping terror-inflicting “scum.” If Ted Cruz thinks he can convince the American electorate otherwise, he is in for a very rude awakening.