Josh Hafner

USA TODAY

Donald Trump's campaign said the reason a new national poll shows him falling behind Ted Cruz is that the owner of a newspaper affiliated with the poll does not like him.

The poll, released Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, shows Cruz leading Trump by two points and was the first time Trump trailed in a national poll in four months.

The Wall Street Journal is owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox News — the network Trump has feuded with since last fall.

"I think somebody at the Wall Street Journal doesn't like me," Trump told MSNBC that evening.

One of the pollsters behind the Wednesday survey admitted its results could reflect a "'pause' before the numbers snap back into place."

Trump adviser Dan Scavino tweeted a graphic reporting results from 10 polls the next morning, with Wednesday's WSJ/NBC poll shown as a clear outlier.

"10 recent national polls," Scavino wrote. "Which one is affiliated with a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch?

Murdoch weighed in that afternoon to squash Trump's theory.

"Trump blames me for WSJ poll, fights FoxNews. Time to calm down," Murdoch tweeted. "If I running anti-Trump conspiracy then doing lousy job!"

The Wednesday poll snapped a streak of 31 national polls showing Trump in the lead, The Hill notes, though a CBS poll released Thursday morning planted him firmly back on top.

Trump himself assailed the Journal poll on Twitter Thursday, calling it "a total joke" and encouraging the press to check out a recent USA TODAY poll instead.

Trump did not question the legitimacy of a January poll from Murdoch's Journal that showed him with a double-digit lead.

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