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Donald Trump blamed Ted Cruz for starting the spat between the two. | AP Photo Trump walks into #NeverTrump radio buzzsaw

For 13 minutes, Donald Trump clashed with Milwaukee radio host Charlie Sykes on his program Monday morning, defending his past statements and policy positions. Less than four minutes before the 17-minute interview wrapped, Trump found out why.

“Mr. Trump, before you called into my show did you know that I’m a #NeverTrump guy?” asked Sykes, a Ted Cruz supporter who has vowed to never vote for the New York billionaire.

“No, I didn’t know that, but I assume you’re also an intelligent guy. I know you’re an intelligent guy, and you understand what’s going on,” Trump said. “Our country is getting ripped off by every country we do business with.”

The dismissed revelation came as a discussion that began with a warm welcome and congratulations on the recent birth of Trump’s newest grandchild heated up, with the Republican front-runner repeatedly rejecting Sykes’ calls for civility in his campaign.

“Well, welcome to Wisconsin,” Sykes began. “I know that you realize that here in Wisconsin we value things like civility, decency and actual conservative principles. So let’s possibly make some news.”

Sykes introduced the spat between Trump, Cruz and their wives, suggesting it would be “a good way to start off your Wisconsin campaign by saying that wives should be off limits and that you apologize for mocking [Cruz’s wife’s] looks.”

But rather than apologize or assert that their wives shouldn’t be thrust into their campaigns, the real-estate mogul blamed Cruz.

“He totally knew about it, and they sent that out to the people of Salt Lake City, or the people of Utah, and it was, you know, with a very nasty statement on it,” Trump said, referring to a racy image of his wife, Melania, from British GQ that was used as a Web ad ahead of Utah’s caucuses. “He knew totally about that. If he didn’t know about that it would be a whole different thing, but he totally knew about it. It was done by people that he knows very well.”

The ad, which included a caption depicting the naked model as the next first lady of the U.S. unless Utahans voted for Cruz, was created by an anti-Trump super PAC unaffiliated with Cruz’s campaign. Trump responded by threatening to “spill the beans” on Heidi Cruz and later retweeted an unflattering image of Heidi beside a picture of Melania.

“Is this your standard, that if a supporter of another candidate, not the candidate himself, does something despicable, that it’s OK for you, personally, a candidate for president of the United States, to behave in that same way?” Sykes asked. “I mean, I expect that from a 12-year-old bully on the playground.”

Trump called it “an artistic picture, actually” and maintained that it was just a retweet from one of his millions of supporters. “It was very minor response to what he did,” Trump said. “I didn’t even know it was necessarily a very bad picture of her versus Melania.”

Sykes also played a clip from an anti-Trump ad airing in Wisconsin in which women read controversial quotes about women Trump has made. Despite the comments, Trump said he would be the best candidate for women and questioned why that would even be an issue.

“I thought this was actually a dead issue until I just spoke to you. I’d rather be talking about trade. I’d rather be talking about the things I’m best at,” Trump said, before touting his endorsement from Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

“Well, you’re in Wisconsin now. Let’s talk about issues. That’s fair enough,” Sykes said, before bringing up Trump’s remarks during a debate last fall in which he said Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker turned a $1 billion surplus into a $2.2 billion shortfall. Trump has also said the state is doing terribly and slammed its schools.

Asked if he stood by his statements, Trump said he got his information from a Time magazine article. “That’s exactly what they said. It was taken out of there verbatim,” Trump said, referring to the $2.2 billion deficit that Politifact rated “Mostly False.”

“If Time magazine’s wrong, then they should apologize,” Trump said. “Then I would certainly apologize for reading Time magazine.”

“Obviously, I failed in my effort to introduce you to Wisconsin and our tradition of civility and decency by getting an apology from you for Heidi Cruz or for what you’ve said about Scott Walker,” Sykes remarked before Trump interrupted, asking if he would be “getting an apology by somebody that sent out a picture of my wife in the state of Utah.”

Trump argued that he does apologize sometimes. “I believe in apologizing, but I think before I would think about apologizing, he owes me an apology because what he did was wrong,” Trump said. “He sent out a picture to people in Utah that was inappropriate.”

Sykes then offered Trump a bit of advice, advising him that voters would love if he were to come out and say he and Cruz would no longer talk about each other’s wives.

“I don’t mind that at all. I think it’s great,” Trump said, before again blaming Cruz seconds later for “starting it.”

“We’re not on a playground,” Sykes said. “We’re running for president of the United States.”

“I agree with that 100 percent, and my views are not playground views,” Trump said. “My views are that our country is losing on every front.”

“And that was an interesting way to start my morning,” Sykes concluded after thanking Trump for phoning in.