GOP frontrunner Donald Trump suggested at least two times during his interview on ABC’s This Week that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) bought the rights to the partially nude G.Q. photo of Melania Trump that appeared in an ad, which started the Twitter war between the two GOP presidential candidates last week.
Trump charged about Cruz:
He’s the one that started it. From what I hear, he and his campaign went out and bought the cover shoot. Melania did a cover shoot for GQ, a very strong modeling picture. No big deal. But it was a cover shoot for GQ, a big magazine. And it was, you know, fine and, if from what I hear, he was the one, or his campaign bought the rights and give it to the super PAC. That super PAC is friendly to Ted Cruz. He started it. I didn’t.
Trump was also questioned about a retweet of an unflattering picture of Heidi Cruz next to Melania, which Trump posted after blasting Cruz for the ad against Melania.
Well, it was a retweet somebody sent to me. It was a retweet. Look, what he did was far worse. He takes out a thing and sends it to Utah, the voters of Utah. It was a cover shoot. It was, by a big magazine. She was a very, very successful model. Big model. Did lots of shoots, cover shoots. To send it like it was a bad picture was disgusting to me. They make me like the bad guy here. I’m just responding to what he does. I respond. I counter punch. I’m responding to what he does. The press likes to make me the bad guy.
Trump then repeated the allegation that Cruz bought the rights to the G.Q. photo, saying, “He’s the one that started it. He knew about the picture. He may have even bought the rights to the picture, meaning his campaign. The super PAC had it. He’s close to the super PAC. I didn’t start this. He did.”