Josh Hafner

USA TODAY

As did Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan in their campaigns, Donald Trump took part this week in the very presidential tradition of threatening a fellow candidate’s wife on Twitter.*

After a super PAC unrelated to Cruz published an ad using a suggestive photo of Trump’s wife, Melania, from GQ, Trump laid the blame on Cruz anyway.

“Lyin' Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a G.Q. shoot in his ad,” Trump tweeted Tuesday. “Be careful, Lyin' Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!”

While it remains unclear what “beans” Trump was referring to, he posted an image on his Twitter account Wednesday another user had tweeted insulting the appearance of Cruz’s wife, Heidi Cruz:

Cruz responded shortly afterward. He did not insult Trump’s wife in return:

Later, on Thursday, Cruz called Trump "a sniveling coward" and told him to "leave Heidi the hell alone."

That morning, Cruz’s campaign denounced the ad depicting Trump’s wife and stressed it had no affiliation with the super PAC Make America Awesome that created it.

“This is a sad state of affairs when we have someone who is running for president who makes derogatory and insulting comments, repeatedly, against women,” Alice Stewart, a Cruz spokeswoman, said on CNN.

“We’ve had Carly Fiorina. We’ve had Megyn Kelly. And now, Heidi Cruz. This is not just a whim. This is a pattern.”

Kelly, a Fox News host, weighted in on Trump's tweet with a one-word response: "Seriously?"

After Trump’s initial tweet threatening his wife, Cruz called Trump a classless coward, and said his wife, Heidi Cruz, was out of Trump’s league.

On Thursday, reporters asked Cruz whether he would still support Trump should the billionaire become the Republican nominee.

"I'm going to beat him," Cruz said, according to CNN. "Donald Trump will not be the nominee."

* Upon further research, USA TODAY found no other candidates have threatened a fellow candidates’ wife on the social networking site Twitter.

Follow Josh Hafner on Twitter: @joshhafner

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