--- title: Ted Cruz Mocks Donald Trump's Position on 'Bathroom Bills' description: Ted Cruz invoked Hillary Clinton’s name for a joke he used to continue criticizing Donald Trump’s stance on North Carolina’s bathroom bill canonical: https://time.com/4305975/ted-cruz-donald-trump-bathroom/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-24T20:29:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:13.461Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ted Cruz Mocks Donald Trump's Position on 'Bathroom Bills' og:description: "If Donald Trump dresses up as Hillary Clinton, he still can't go to the girl's bathroom" og:url: https://time.com/4305975/ted-cruz-donald-trump-bathroom/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe496f7d1d94b312/6988907aa988cac3786b7915/ted-cruz-donald-trump-bathroom.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Ted Cruz Campaigns In Maryland Ahead Of Primary og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ted Cruz Mocks Donald Trump's Position on 'Bathroom Bills' twitter:description: "If Donald Trump dresses up as Hillary Clinton, he still can't go to the girl's bathroom" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe496f7d1d94b312/6988907aa988cac3786b7915/ted-cruz-donald-trump-bathroom.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ted Cruz Mocks Donald Trump's Position on 'Bathroom Bills' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### 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 [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Apr 24, 2016 8:29 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) campaigns at the Weinberg Theater April 21, 2016 in Frederick, Maryland. Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) campaigns at the Weinberg Theater April 21, 2016 in Frederick, Maryland. Win McNamee—Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Apr 24, 2016 8:29 PM UTC Ted Cruz [invoked Hillary Clinton’s name for a joke](https://amp.twimg.com/v/b14ad5fb-ae3f-4eda-baf5-a654d2fd5b74) he used to criticize Republican rival Donald Trump’s stance on so-called “bathroom bills.” The Texas senator, who is in favor of laws that would force transgender people to use restrooms that match the gender they were assigned at birth, has slammed Trump for [disagreeing](http://time.com/4303252/donald-trump-transgender-bathroom-lgbt-ted-cruz/). He painted a vivid image of a hypothetical situation during a campaign stop in Terre Haute, Indiana, which he said was meant to “make things real simple” to voters. “If Donald Trump dresses up as Hillary Clinton, he still can’t go to the girl’s bathroom,” Cruz said, according to [ABC News](https://twitter.com/jesshop23/status/724315054187941888). > [](https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/724323088322564097) Trump has said that people should be allowed to use whatever bathroom they feel is appropriate, while Cruz believes that idea is “absurd.” “The idea that grown men would be allowed alone in a bathroom with little girls—you don’t need to be a behavioral psychologist to realize bad things can happen,” Cruz said in an interview with Glenn Beck. “A prudent person wouldn’t allow that.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4305975/ted-cruz-donald-trump-bathroom/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4305975/ted-cruz-donald-trump-bathroom/"},"headline":"Ted Cruz Mocks Donald Trump's Position on 'Bathroom Bills'","datePublished":"2016-04-24T20:29:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:13.461Z","description":"\"If Donald Trump dresses up as Hillary Clinton, he still can't go to the girl's bathroom\"","url":"https://time.com/4305975/ted-cruz-donald-trump-bathroom/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe496f7d1d94b312/6988907aa988cac3786b7915/ted-cruz-donald-trump-bathroom.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe496f7d1d94b312/6988907aa988cac3786b7915/ted-cruz-donald-trump-bathroom.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ted Cruz Campaigns In Maryland Ahead Of Primary","caption":"Ted Cruz Campaigns In Maryland Ahead Of Primary","creditText":"Win McNamee—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/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4305975/ted-cruz-donald-trump-bathroom/","name":"Ted Cruz Mocks Donald Trump's Position on 'Bathroom Bills'"}}]}] ```