It’s not everyday you’re in the checkout line at the grocery store and see a magazine headline that roars, “Ted Cruz Father Now Linked to JFK Assassination!” 
And it’s not everyday a leading presidential candidate reads a tabloid and then quotes it as truth.
But that’s what Donald Trump did today.
The cover has pictures of Cruz, his dad Rafael, a dying JFK and his beautiful wife Jacqueline by his side.
The National Enquirer, America’s source for all good political news, says is “conclusive evidence” that Rafael Cruz knew Lee Harvey Oswald, and is thus linked to Kennedy’s assassination.
The article says Rafael Cruz is the man photographed next to John F. Kennedy’s assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963 distributing pro-Castro leaflets in New Orleans (see above photograph) just months before JFK was gunned down in Dallas.
The Enquirer hired photo experts who compared pictures of Rafael Cruz from the late 1950s and early 1960s with the ones released by the Warren Commission.
The man in the white shirt next to Oswald was never identified by the commission, and the Enquirer says its experts conclude it is Cruz.
“They seem to match” said Carole Lieberman, a University of California forensic psychologist.
That’s about the extent of the Enquirer’s evidence.
But The Donald believes it is enough.
“His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald’s being — you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous,” said Trump after reading the National Enquirer. “What is this, right prior to his being shot, and nobody even brings it up. They don’t even talk about that. That was reported, and nobody talks about it. I mean, what was he doing — what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death? Before the shooting? It’s horrible.”
Unbelievable.
What we know for fact is that Rafael Cruz participated in a pro-Castro rally in 1959. He told a student newspaper at the time he supported Castro, even attempting to become part of his guerrilla army.
Ted Cruz’s spokeswoman says any links between Rafael Cruz and Oswald are “garbage.”
This all follows the Enquirer “exclusive” from last month that linked the Cruz to a hooker, among other women not his wife, all under the headline: “5 romps that will destroy Ted Cruz!”
But he shouldn’t feel singled out in all this.
Seven months ago the tabloid boldly predicted that Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton had six months to live.
The thought of Trump, or any presidential candidate, relying on the National Enquirer for their source of information is, in a word, scary.