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

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published 4 April 2016

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."

Nicknames are far from the only material Trump is writing for his own campaign. Unlike other campaigns, New York reports that there aren't any speechwriters or pollsters coming up with the Republican candidate's material. "I'm the writer," Trump said, explaining that he comes up with all his remarks on the fly. "I speak from the brain and from the heart in combination, hopefully in equal combination."