--- title: Donald Trump: 'I Will Be Phenomenal to the Women' description: The leading Republican presidential contender came under fire for sexist remarks after last week's GOP debate. canonical: https://time.com/3989907/donald-trump-women-2/ author: Tanya Basu article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-09T14:01:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:47.423Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump: 'I Will Be Phenomenal to the Women' og:description: "I'm very much into the whole thing of helping people and helping women." og:url: https://time.com/3989907/donald-trump-women-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt167e64550765ec0d/69885e6ca988cac80a6b3cfe/donald-trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Republican Presidential Debate donald trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump: 'I Will Be Phenomenal to the Women' twitter:description: "I'm very much into the whole thing of helping people and helping women." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt167e64550765ec0d/69885e6ca988cac80a6b3cfe/donald-trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump: 'I Will Be Phenomenal to the Women' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=818b11cc-aac8-4557-bfc6-43b64a5223cb&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: 2016 Republican Presidential Debate in Under 3 Minutes [Watch (HLS stream): 2016 Republican Presidential Debate in Under 3 Minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/AWg12u3O.m3u8) (2:31)  _Published 2015-08-07. 2016 Republican Presidential Debate in Under 3 Minutes_  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Aug 9, 2015 2:01 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump fields a question during the first Republican presidential debate on Aug. 6, 2015 in Cleveland. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump fields a question during the first Republican presidential debate on Aug. 6, 2015 in Cleveland. Scott Olson—Getty Images  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Aug 9, 2015 2:01 PM UTC **Correction appended, Aug. 10** Donald Trump hit the Sunday morning talk show circuit declaring himself to be a female-friendly candidate and “phenomenal to the women.” “I’m very much into the whole thing of helping people and helping women, women’s health issues are such a big thing to me,” [he said on _Face the Nation_,](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-i-will-be-phenomenal-to-the-women/) denouncing rival Jeb Bush’s remarks last week at a Tennessee campaign stop when he said “I’m not sure we need half a billion dollars for women’s health issues”—now retracted by Bush with an apology. “I’m exactly the opposite,” the leading Republican presidential candidate added. “I will be phenomenal to the women. I want to help women. What Jeb Bush said last week I thought was totally out of order.” Trump’s comments come a few days after the first official GOP debate of the 2016 campaign, when moderator Megyn Kelly asked Trump about his stance on women: “You’ve called women you don’t like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.” Trump later took to Twitter and retweeted a message in which someone called Kelly “a bimbo,” drawing fire for his insinuation that Kelly should be taken less seriously as a women. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/629553612839124992) In an interview on Friday with CNN’s Don Lemon, Trump insinuated that Kelly was on her period and that she asked this question because of it. “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her … wherever … ” he trailed off. Speaking on CNN’s _State of the Union,_ Trump said he didn’t mean to suggest that Kelly asked the question because she was menstruating. “I cherish women,” he said. The comment drew harsh criticism of sexism from Republicans, with fellow presidential candidates condemning Trump as sexist and commentator Erick Erickson “[disinviting](http://www.redstate.com/2015/08/07/i-have-disinvited-donald-trump-to-the-redstate-gathering/)” Trump from his RedState gathering in Atlanta. “I think women of all kinds are really sort of horrified by this,” Carly Fiorina, the only woman running for the Republican ticket, said. > [](https://twitter.com/CarlyFiorina/status/629860026916716545) > [](https://twitter.com/CarlyFiorina/status/629860119682097152) **Correction:** The original version of this story incorrectly described a Twitter post calling Megyn Kelly a “bimbo.” That Twitter post came from a user and was retweeted by Trump. ## Transcript I don't want my marriage or my guns registered in Washington. Why don't I talk about race that often I said it's because I'm a neurosurgeon. To the families of those who died in that war who say they liberated a country and deposed a ruthless dictator, how do you look at them now and say your brother's war was a mistake? Knowing what we know now, it was a mistake. How is Hilary Clinton gonna lecture me about living paycheck to paycheck? I was raised paycheck to paycheck. [ APPLAUSE ] [ MUSIC ] We need to build a wall, and it has to be built quickly. And I don't mind having a big beautiful door in that wall so that people can come into this country legally. We need to keep illegals out. I also believe we need a fence. The problem is if El Chapo builds a tunnel under the fence we have to be able to deal with that too. Mr. Trump is touching a nerve because people want the wall to be built. People want an end to illegal immigration and they want to see it end and we all do. A 4 % growth strategy means you fix a convoluted tax code. The first thing we need to do is we need to even out the tax code for small businesses so that we lower their tax rate to 25 % just as we need to lower it for all businesses. You get in and you change every aspect of regulations that are job killers. We can get rid of the internal revenue service if we would pass the fair tax which is a tax on consumption rather than attacks on people's income. We need to repeal and replace Obamacare. Iran is not a place we should be doing business with. To me we terminate the deal on day one, you reinstate the sanctions authorized by Congress. I think President Obama gave away too much, too early. I would have never released the sanctions before there was consistent evidence of compliance. The world has a burgeoning nuclear power, but the Iranians have said is we will wipe Israel off the face of the map and we will bring death to America. As governor of the state of Florida, I defunded Planned Parenthood. I created a culture of life in our state. I was in business, they asked me a question as to pro life or choice. And I said if you let it run that I hate the concept of abortion. I hate the concept of abortion. What I have advocated is that we pass a law in this country that says that all human life At every stage of its development is worthy of protection. In fact, I think that law all ready exists, it's called the Constitution of the United States. 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