--- title: Donald Trump Defends Describing Ted Cruz Using Vulgar Term description: Donald Trump, who received criticism for using a vulgar term to describe Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Monday, defended the incident on Tuesday canonical: https://time.com/4213604/donald-trump-ted-cruz/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-09T15:23:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:54:06.892Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Defends Using Vulgar Term to Describe Ted Cruz og:description: "It was like a retweet" og:url: https://time.com/4213604/donald-trump-ted-cruz/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf956b739fedd636/69887cb88e060134ee464826/donald-trump-manchester-rally.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3264 og:image:height: 1836 og:image:alt: US-VOTE-REPUBLICAN og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Defends Using Vulgar Term to Describe Ted Cruz twitter:description: "It was like a retweet" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf956b739fedd636/69887cb88e060134ee464826/donald-trump-manchester-rally.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Defends Using Vulgar Term to Describe Ted Cruz > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Feb 9, 2016 3:23 PM UTC  Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Manchester, N.H., on Feb. 8. Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Manchester, N.H., on Feb. 8. DON EMMERT—AFP/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Feb 9, 2016 3:23 PM UTC Donald Trump, who sparked criticism for [using a vulgar term](http://time.com/4213231/donald-trump-ted-cruz-offensive-name/) to describe Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Monday, [defended the incident](https://twitter.com/foxandfriends/status/697055289925734400) in interviews on Tuesday, as [New Hampshire voters took to the polls](http://time.com/4213472/new-hampshire-primary-results-midnight) for the first-in-the-nation primary. “Can I tell you what? The audience went crazy, standing ovation, 5,000 people went nuts,” Trump said on Fox News. “They loved it.” A woman in the audience at Trump’s Monday rally in Manchester, N.H., responded to Cruz’s stance on waterboarding, yelling “He’s a pussy!” The Republican presidential candidate repeated the phrase. “You’re not allowed to say, and I never expect to hear that from you again,” Trump said. “She said he’s a pussy.” **Read more:** [Donald Trump’s Son Compares Waterboarding to Frat Parties](http://time.com/4213484/donald-trump-eric-waterboarding-defense/) While Trump has said he wants to [bring back the practice of waterboarding](http://time.com/4123587/donald-trump-waterboarding/), Cruz has said he “would not bring it back in any sort of widespread use.” “It was like a retweet,” Trump said on Tuesday. “I would never say a word like that.” As he has throughout his campaign, Trump emphasized that he won’t subscribe to political correctness, and he chalked the incident up to having a little fun. “We were all just having fun,” Trump said on MSNBC. “It was a great moment.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4213604/donald-trump-ted-cruz/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4213604/donald-trump-ted-cruz/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Defends Using Vulgar Term to Describe Ted Cruz","datePublished":"2016-02-09T15:23:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:54:06.892Z","description":"\"It was like a retweet\"","url":"https://time.com/4213604/donald-trump-ted-cruz/","keywords":["Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf956b739fedd636/69887cb88e060134ee464826/donald-trump-manchester-rally.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf956b739fedd636/69887cb88e060134ee464826/donald-trump-manchester-rally.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-VOTE-REPUBLICAN","caption":"US-VOTE-REPUBLICAN","creditText":"DON EMMERT—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4213604/donald-trump-ted-cruz/","name":"Donald Trump Defends Using Vulgar Term to Describe Ted Cruz"}}]}] ```