“I don't know his father. I met him once. I think he's a lovely guy,” Donald Trump said at a morning-after rally in Cleveland. | Getty Trump revives rumor linking Cruz's father to JFK assassination

A day after accepting the Republican Party’s nomination for president, Donald Trump rehashed a conspiracy theory that claims the man who killed President John F. Kennedy once cavorted with Ted Cruz’s father.

“I don't know his father. I met him once. I think he's a lovely guy,” Trump said at a morning-after rally in Cleveland. “All I did is point out the fact that on the cover of the National Enquirer there was a picture of him and crazy Lee Harvey Oswald having breakfast.”


Trump invoked Cruz’s father during an extended screed against the Texas senator for failing to endorse him during the convention. While Trump and Cruz were primary rivals in May, Trump initially pointed out an Enquirer story which featured Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, pictured with Lee Harvey Oswald while handing out pro-Fidel Castro pamphlets in New Orleans in 1963.

More known for its sordid tales of celebrity affairs and alien invasion cover-ups, the National Enquirer has famously broken two major stories: John Edwards’ love child during the 2008 presidential campaign and some early aspects of O.J. Simpson’s 1994 murder trial, exceptions Trump gleefully pointed out on Friday.

“This was a magazine that, in many respects, should be well respected,” Trump said. “I mean if that was The New York Times, they would have gotten Pulitzer Prizes for their reporting.”