Unlike most GOP competitors in the 2016 White House race, Ted Cruz is not shying away from Donald Trump after the business mogul's controversial comments. In fact, the Texas senator said he "saluted" the "Apprentice" star for tackling immigration, CNBC reported.

Trump made headlines by saying that Mexico brings drug dealers, criminals and rapists to the United States -- comments that caused widespread backlash in the Latino community. But Cruz, one of two Latino candidates in the party's increasingly crowded field of presidential contenders, told the business channel that journalists were to blame for the upheaval.

"Sometimes it seems there's no sport that the media enjoys more than Republican-on-Republican violence," the senator noted. "Policy disagreements are meant to be the bread and butter of politics. I don't think it's appropriate to impugn the integrity of other candidates, and I don't intend to do so."

The two candidates met on Wednesday for nearly an hour and vowed that they would not let the often bloody primary season get in the way of their friendship, ABC News noted.

"He's running, and I'm running, and we both agreed that we started out as friends and we'll end as friends," Cruz insisted. "You know, Donald and I have gotten together and visited a number of times before he was a presidential candidate and it was good to visit."

Trump was "one of a kind" and their meeting "terrific," the Texan judged. He insisted that he had not asked for the TV personality's presidential endorsement.

CBS News, meanwhile, commented that Trump had "pulled off an amazing feat" by keeping himself in the news during a summer filled with headline-grabbing events, including major Supreme Court decisions and the shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.

"He has also gotten nearly every other Republican in the 2016 GOP race to talk about his candidacy, rather than their own," the network noted.

But Republican strategist John Feehery still believes the phenomenon will be short-lived. "Will there be long term impact for the Republican Party? I don't think so, mostly because our nominee's not going to be Donald Trump," he said.