Donald Trump explains how he came up with Rubio and Cruz's nicknames

Where Trump gets his insults.
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Like most of his lines, Donald Trump says his nicknames for former and current GOP rivals Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) just came to him. "Let me start with Little Marco," the Republican presidential frontrunner said in an interview with New York published Monday. "He just looked like Little Marco to me. And it's not Little. It's Liddle. L-I-D-D-L-E."

Cruz's nickname, Trump explains, also has a particular pronunciation. "And it’s not L-Y-I-N-G Ted Cruz," Trump said. "It's L-Y-I-N apostrophe. Ted's a liar, so that was easy."

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