It wasn’t originally supposed to be the Trump show. Had he not invited the real estate mogul to join him on the stage at Wednesday’s rally against the Iran deal on the Capitol’s West Lawn, Ted Cruz would have been the star.

Despite his eloquent, forceful speech against the Iran nuclear agreement before Congress, the Texas senator and presidential candidate served merely as a warm-up act for his rival, who sits atop the GOP primary field, who he introduced as “my good friend, Donald Trump.”

Cruz embraced Trump in a bro hug as the two crossed paths on-stage, effectively bestowing upon the man whom Jeb Bush has attacked for not being a true conservative the stamp of approval from the candidate most beloved by the GOP’s conservative base.

Trump, speaking with characteristic bluster, had won the day just by showing up. His speech criticizing the Iran nuclear deal took just six minutes — a mere formality.

“I’ve been doing deals for a long time,” Trump told the crowd. “I’ve been making lots of wonderful deals; that’s what I do. Never, ever, ever in my life have I seen any transaction so incompetently negotiated as our deal with Iran.”

Brushing aside any need to pick apart the deal point by point — “Ted has gone through the details,” he noted — Trump worked in broad strokes, telling the crowd that the four Americans currently held hostage in Iran “would be back before I even take office” and promising that the country will simply “win” again should he be elected president.

Trump also called attention to comments from Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday, who was quoted as saying that his country would not negotiate with the U.S. beyond the nuclear deal and that Israel would not exist in another 25 years.

Trump echoed Cruz, who spoke before him and called the proposed agreement between the U.S., five other major powers and Iran as “catastrophic.”

“It is the single greatest national security threat facing America,” he said, imploring Democrats who have declared their support for the deal to reconsider and imploring Republican leaders in Congress to block the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran.

“No more talk, no more show votes. Stop this deal!” Cruz told a roaring crowd.

Trump, waiting for his turn on stage as Cruz spoke, wasn’t listening but instead holding court with the dozens of reporters and photographers who surrounded him behind the dais.

More than 50 people were to speak before the rally was finished, including former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, radio talk show hosts Mark Levin and Glenn Beck ,and Phil Robertson of “Duck Dynasty” fame.

But Trump generated most of the excitement. When the real estate mogul walked into the event, he was mobbed — in part because he was flanked by an extensive security detail, but a cheering group of supporters built out the crowd.

Cruz, on the other hand, walked in and had enough space to shake hands and take a selfie or two, including with people who had divided loyalties between the Texas senator and the billionaire.

“TRiUMPhant — Cruzing to Victory,” read one sign held by a man who greeted the senator, a nod to both candidates.

“That’s awesome,” Cruz said as he made his way to the stage.

Cruz, the most eloquent orator in the GOP’s 17-candidate presidential field, spoke about the Obama administration abandoning the four American hostages “in an Iranian hellhole.” He predicted dire consequences should the nuclear agreement go through, as is likely now that the White House has secured support from 42 Democratic senators, enough to ensure legislation blocking the deal can be vetoed.

“Americans will die, Israelis will die, Europeans will die,” he said. “Osama bin Laden never had a hundred billion dollars,” Cruz said, referencing the economic impact of lifting sanctions on Iran. “Yet the Al Qaeda carried out the most destructive terrorist attack in American history nearly 14 years ago. You cannot wash your hands of that blood.”

Every Democratic senator, Cruz said, faces a choice on whether he or she values party loyalty to the Obama administration more than national security. And every Republican lawmaker must decide whether a show vote is better than stopping the deal, he said. Anyone running for president should be willing to “rip to shreds this catastrophic deal” in January 2017.

But no amount of rhetorical red meat, even before a crowd of flag-waving conservatives who identify themselves with the tea party movement, could match the excitement Trump seemed to spark with his presence alone. As his security detail escorted him out of the crowd, Trump waved to supporters, even stopping for a few selfies.

“Make America great again!” shouted a young man wearing a navy blue Trump T-shirt.

As he ascended the Capitol’s west steps before heading inside for a meeting with Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump posed for a photo with Capitol police officers.

Cruz, who’d organized the rally with Tea Party Patriots, invited Trump relatively late in the planning process, a unilateral decision he made to draw more people to the rally, he said.

In an interview ahead of the rally, Trump said he knew he was being invited because he could draw a crowd — but that was OK by him, he told POLITICO, even though he knew that in doing so, he might also elevate Cruz.

“I’m a very confident person,” he said. “I’m not worried about giving someone else exposure, especially if that someone else is a person who deserves respect.”

Although the move ensured that Cruz would be sharing a spotlight with Trump, who taps into the same conservative, mad-as-hell base that he is courting, and who has overshadowed Cruz and the rest of the GOP field all summer, he is well-positioned to capture much of Trump’s support if the current front-runner falters in the months ahead.

For now though, that’s a big if.

Gary Bridges, an attendee who drove from Bowling Green, Kentucky, donated to Cruz’s campaign earlier in the year but is now supporting Trump, despite aligning far more closely ideologically with the conservative Texas senator.

“I don’t know of anything I disagree with Cruz on,” Bridges said. “And I’m sure that I disagree with Trump on some things, but I like what he’s doing. He’s generating the similar excitement to what Reagan did years ago.”

Katie Glueck contributed to this report.