“You know what, he’s lucky I did it,” Trump told Bloomberg Politics’ Co-Managing Editor Mark Halperin in an interview to air Sunday night on Showtime’s “The Circus.” The interview was conducted midday Friday on a flight from Cleveland to New York on one of Trump’s private planes.

“I walked in and the arena went crazy. Because there’s great unity in the Republican Party and people don’t know it,” Trump said. “Had I not walked in, I think that audience would have ripped him off the stage. I think I did him a big favor.”

When asked point blank if he entered the arena at the conclusion of Cruz’s speech on Wednesday to “tweak” his former primary rival, Trump responded: “Tweak him? I would never do a thing like that. But yes.”