Presidential hopefuls Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have long made a point out of going soft on each other in the 2016 White House race but the gloves may soon come off between the real-estate tycoon and the Texas senator.

According to new polls, Cruz is faring increasingly well in the crucial early-caucus state of Iowa. The Texan, a Tea Party favorite, made use of a couple of opportunities to rip his rival's positions in recent days, opposing Trump's proposal to set up a registry of Muslim Americans and criticizing the mogul's controversial comments on immigration, which have been perceived as anti-Mexican by many in the Latino community, Bloomberg noted.

"I'm a big fan of Donald Trump's but I'm not a fan of government registries of American citizens," Cruz explained about the Muslim database idea, which Trump had launched in the wake of the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris. "The First Amendment protects religious liberty, I've spent the past several decades defending religious liberty."

And with respect to immigration, Cruz suggested that his challenger's rhetoric may not be particularly helpful to advance the debate. "Tone matters," Cruz said. "Are there some in the Republican Party whose rhetoric is unhelpful with regard to immigration? Yes."

Cruz "has drawn policy contrasts with his opponents before and he will continue to do so as he shares his own record and positions with voters on the campaign trail," explained Catherine Frazier, the senator's spokeswoman.

Trump, for his part, told radio host Laura Ingraham last week that his fondness of Cruz was sincere, according to the New York Times.

"Well, I like him," he said of his rival. "He's backed everything that I said."

But Trump's peaceful ways may soon end, as well, the newspaper predicted, given that a new Quinnipiac University poll revealed on Tuesday that the two are in a statistical tie for the lead in Iowa.

"If he catches on, I guess we'll have to go to war," Trump has admitted in a CNBC interview, the New York Times noted.