Ted Cruz claimed on 'The View' that his wife Heidi laughed when Trump insulted her looks back in 2016
- Ted Cruz said his wife, Heidi Cruz, laughed off Donald Trump's insult about her looks.
- Cruz said his "feelings were hurt" but that he moved on to focus on serving Texans.
Sen. Ted Cruz on Monday said his wife, Heidi Cruz, laughed when former President Donald Trump insulted her looks in 2016.
On "The View" on Monday, host Ana Navarro asked Cruz about Trump's 2016 insult. When they were both running for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, Trump shared an unflattering photo of Heidi Cruz next to a photo of his own wife, Melania. "A picture is worth a thousand words," read the caption Trump posted, along with the hashtag #LyingTed.
Navarro also brought up Trump's baseless accusation that Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz, took part in former President John F. Kennedy's assassination.
"I frankly don't know how you get over your wife being called ugly. I don't know how you get over those kinds of calumnies against your father," Navarro said. "But you obviously have gotten over it, today you sing a very different tune. So tell us: Were you lying then, or are you lying now?"
Cruz responded that he and Trump "beat the living crap out of each other" when they were both campaigning for the presidential nomination.
"I tell you, Heidi laughed when he said that," Cruz said. "My father laughed, by the way — my dad didn't just kill Kennedy, he's got Jimmy Hoffa buried in the backyard. It was idiotic."
Cruz added, however, that Trump won "in the end." This, he said, motivated him to get over how his "feelings were hurt" and to instead focus on representing Texans in the Senate.
Heidi Cruz did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Cruz's claim that his wife laughed off the insult appears to be an attempt to show he has a positive relationship with Trump despite their acrimonious exchanges in the past.
In response to Trump's 2016 insult, Cruz hit back at Trump on Twitter, writing: "Donald, real men don't attack women. Your wife is lovely, and Heidi is the love of my life."
In May 2016, Trump also baselessly alleged that Cruz's father was with Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, before Oswald killed the president. Trump continued to rehash this conspiracy theory even after he accepted the GOP's nomination for president. In July 2016, Cruz said he would not back Trump "like a servile puppy dog" after insults to his family.
Both men seem to have buried the hatchet. In October 2018, Trump called Cruz "Beautiful Ted," a sharp turn from his campaign trail nickname for the senator, "Lying Ted." Cruz was also seen having dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in May 2021, months after the Capitol riot.
Representatives for Cruz and Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.