Former U.S. president Donald Trump repeated a baseless claim about Justin Trudeau’s parentage in an interview on Monday, suggesting that the prime minister “could be” the son of former Cuban president Fidel Castro.
The current Republican presidential candidate sat down for an interview with streamer Adin Ross and was asked to react to photos of various U.S. and world leaders.
When shown a photo of the prime minister, Trump immediately brought up the conspiracy theory, citing an unnamed “they” as his source.
“They say he’s the son of Fidel Castro and could be. Anything’s possible in this world,” Trump said.
Trudeau was born on Dec. 25, 1971, to the late Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and his wife, Margaret — more than four years before Margaret made a much-publicized first trip to Cuba and met Castro.
The conspiracy had previously been shared widely on social media after Castro’s death in 2016, when Trudeau caused an uproar over remarks praising the late Cuban leader.
The interview with Ross is being described by U.S. media as an attempt for Trump to reach younger voters. At the beginning of the interview Trump said his 18-year-old son Barron is a “big fan” of the U.S.-based streamer.
Ross has more than four million subscribers on YouTube and more than one million subscribers on Kick, according to publicly viewable numbers on those platforms.
Trump did say that he “got along very well” with Trudeau, but suggested he didn’t approve of his policies.
“He seems to be going very progressive and the people of Canada are not liking it,” he said.
Trump also suggested that a conservative candidate could win the next election, though he seemed to be unaware of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre who has been leading the Trudeau Liberals in recent polls.
“If they had a good conservative person — maybe they do, maybe they don’t. I don’t know. But somebody that’s a strong conservative would win in Canada,” Trump said.
In addition to Trudeau, Trump also reacted to photos of Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.
Trump described Xi as a “powerful” man and said he enjoyed a “good relationship” with the Chinese president, while he said he “really got along with” Kim.
