Rumours about Justin Trudeau’s relationship with former Cuban President Fidel Castro have resurfaced, this time in Donald Trump’s latest book.
Fact-checkers have long rejected the claim that the Canadian prime minister is the son of the late revolutionary leader, and both governments have come under pressure to say the link is false.
But that hasn’t stopped the former US president and Republican candidate from repeating the myth in his latest work, ‘Save America’.
Trump spends some time on the topic, recounting anecdotes while shedding light on his relationship with the Canadian prime minister and delving into risqué rumours about Margaret Trudeau’s affairs in the 1970s.
Scrutiny of her relationship with Castro around the time of their divorce swept the internet in 2016, but the rumors were largely debunked in 2018, making Trump’s revival of their alleged “partnership” in 2024 unusual.
With the Republican candidate’s interest in Justin Trudeau back in the spotlight, DailyMail.com takes a look at the wild claims and accusations in Trump’s book.
Then-President Donald J. Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in London, 2019
Margaret Trudeau smiles as Cuban President Fidel Castro holds her youngest son, Michel, after the Trudeaus arrived in Havana, Cuba, in 1976.
After estrangement from her husband Pierre Trudeau in the late 1970s, Margaret (seen with Pierre and their children in 1975) adopted an unconventional lifestyle for a former First Lady.
Justin Trudeau is the son of the late former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and activist Margaret Sinclair. He was born in 1971 and his parents divorced 13 years later, during his father’s final months in office.
Margaret Trudeau would later admit – in her 1982 book Consequences – to having had affairs with actors Jack Nicholson and Ryan O’Neal and singer Lou Rawls, after the relationship ended.
Margaret was spotted cozying up to a host of famous hunks, including actor Ryan O’Neal (seen) and tennis player Bjorn Borg.
And through his public persona, he is said to have associated with members of the Rolling Stones, senior U.S. government officials and even Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.
The latter of these relationships became the subject of a conspiracy theory after Castro’s death in 2016, with netizens pointing out physical similarities between the two world leaders.
Trudeau also drew criticism when he praised the controversial leader as a “larger-than-life legendary revolutionary” in comments following his death.
The theories exploded when Castro’s eldest son, Fidelito, died by suicide in 2018 and several media outlets reported that he had left a note referring to Trudeau as his half-brother.
An entertaining analysis of VICE He noted: ‘The conspiracy was of course amplified by 4Chan trolls, far-right blogs, and the worst people on Twitter, who took this as fact and worked to promote the theory.
‘The theorists were very deep, like trying to approximate Margaret Trudeau’s menstrual cycle, and it’s all very, very stupid.’
Photographs have emerged of Fidel Castro holding Justin Trudeau in 1976 when the Canadian Prime Minister and his wife landed in Havana on a historic visit, becoming the first NATO leader to set foot in Castro’s Cuba.
The leaders reportedly They got along very well and developed a close bond in the years that followed.
But there is no evidence that Margaret or her husband knew Castro before Justin was born.
“Experts say it would have been impossible for a previous visit to Cuba to go unnoticed,” AP reported in 2018.
Cuban media have been unusually open about the death of Castro’s eldest son, Fidelito, describing it as a suicide after a long period of depression.
‘Neither state media nor independent journalists covering the death have reported the existence of a suicide note.’
However, this did not stop Donald Trump from continuing to give rise to rumors in his new book.
The former president wrote: ‘His mother was beautiful and wild. In the 70s, she used to go to clubs with the Rolling Stones, but she was also associated in some way with Fidel Castro.
She said he was ‘the sexiest man I’ve ever met,’ and many people say Justin is her son.
‘He swears he isn’t, but how the fuck was I supposed to know?
‘Castro had good hair, the ‘father’ did not, Justin has good hair and has become a communist just like Castro.’
Pierre Trudeau and his wife Margaret stroll hand in hand through Heritage Park in Calgary
Justin Trudeau is pictured with his mother, Margaret Trudeau
Margaret pursued a career in photography and began spending time in New York when the relationship began to break down (pictured in Paris, France, circa 1977).
Such rumors prompted the governments of Canada and Cuba to deny the news after Castro’s death. Fact-checkers backed up their claims.
The Associated Press was among those who debunked the theory, noting that Trudeau was born about four years before Margaret made her first trip to Cuba.
In May 1977, Margaret was seen partying with the Rolling Stones until the early hours of the morning.
Margaret’s relationships with other political leaders, artists and celebrities have also been a source of curiosity over the decades, guided by her own admissions of affairs during her relationship with Pierre.
In May 1977, rumours arose that their marriage had fractured after Margaret was seen partying with the Rolling Stones until the early hours of the morning.
While reflecting on the incident in Harper’s Bazaar in 2016, Margaret explained that she and Pierre had already secretly split up when the wild night occurred.
“We played craps until five in the morning in my hotel suite, smoked a little marijuana, talked. It was a good night and it was my new world,” he said.
“But nobody knew yet that I was separated from my husband and that caused a huge scandal.”
The couple announced shortly afterwards that they were divorcing, with Pierre stating at the time that Margaret “wished to leave the marriage and pursue an independent career.”
Still, she reflected in 2016 that she felt she had unfairly shouldered much of the blame for the relationship’s breakdown.
“I didn’t walk away. It was mutual. Any woman would have done it,” she explained.
‘Any mother who wanted to protect her children from Pierre’s isolation and his contempt for anyone who approached him, those we call friends.’
However, rumors of any intimate relationship with the Rolling Stones have been dismissed.
“It’s really embarrassing. It’s not true, you know?” Stones frontman Mick Jagger said at the time.
“She just came for a two-night gig. She just wanted to have a good time. I don’t know.”
She later told the Evening Standard that she was “a very sick girl who was looking for something. She found it, but not with me. I wouldn’t go near her with a stick.”
Trump’s White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham also noted in her own memoir that Margaret denied having had affairs with any of the Rolling Stones.
But Trump allegedly gave in to potentially damaging rumors, Grisham recounted in her book.
He claimed that Trump once repeated the rumour about Margaret’s relationship with the British rock band.
“Once, on Air Force One, I was sitting with him in his cabin and for some reason — perhaps he had read something or seen his face on television — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau popped into the president’s head,” Grisham wrote.
Trump then asked: “Is it OK for me to say this?” according to Grisham, before blurting out: “Trudeau’s mother. She fucked all the Rolling Stones.”
Margaret Trudeau is pictured with members of the Rolling Stones
Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau meets with Fidel Castro during a state visit
‘I was barely a woman, in my early 20s,’ Margaret Trudeau would later reflect on her marriage to Pierre Trudeau, explaining the real reasons behind their split.
‘He was a very urban and sophisticated intellectual of about 50 years old.’
‘I was fresh out of college. I was a flower child. I was very free-thinking for my time. I had been brought up to be very free…
“But once he married me and took me home and I had his children, I realized I had been put in a birdcage.”
The couple agreed to separate in 1977 and divorced in 1984, when Trudeau was just a teenager.
Margaret has been candid about her relationships with various celebrities as she became a public personality and socialite in her own right.
But rumours about his alleged relationship with Fidel Castro and claims that he is the father of the current Canadian Prime Minister remain completely unfounded.