--- title: Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly Spar Over 'Bimbo' Retweet description: In Megyn Kelly's primetime Fox special with Donald Trump, she pressed him hard on the sexist language he and his supporters have used canonical: https://time.com/4339581/donald-trump-megyn-kelly-bimbo-fox-special/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-18T01:02:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-06T09:17:17.716Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly Spar Over 'Bimbo' Retweet og:description: "Megyn, you’ve been called a lot worse. Wouldn’t you say?" og:url: https://time.com/4339581/donald-trump-megyn-kelly-bimbo-fox-special/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ff8c9cbe3413148/698893a4cd1bba154e700b9d/megyn-kelly-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: megyn-kelly-trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly Spar Over 'Bimbo' Retweet twitter:description: "Megyn, you’ve been called a lot worse. Wouldn’t you say?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ff8c9cbe3413148/698893a4cd1bba154e700b9d/megyn-kelly-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly Spar Over 'Bimbo' Retweet > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice 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. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=93e7fc77-1854-4d29-bb06-44282b16a037&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Trump's Art of the Duel [Watch (HLS stream): Trump's Art of the Duel](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mwjW3v8J.m3u8) (2:22)  _Published 2016-01-27. As Donald Trump says he will not participate in Thursday's debate as part of his ongoing feud with Fox News' Megyn Kelly, TIME looks at his strategy in his many long-running disputes._  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 18, 2016 1:02 AM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 18, 2016 1:02 AM UTC In [Megyn Kelly](http://time.com/4326784/megyn-kelly-donald-trump-fox-news/?iid=sr-link2)’s prime-time Fox special with Donald Trump on Tuesday night, she pressed him hard on the sexist language he and his supporters have used about her over the past nine months. “You’ve probably had some pretty nasty tweets sent your way … I don’t want that to happen,” Trump said of the aftermath of the [first Republican debate](http://time.com/3988189/republican-debate-fox-first-gop-donald-trump/), when he and Kelly first tangled over his vulgar language toward women. “You retweet some of those,” Kelly replied. “It’s not just the fans.” “Not the more nasty ones. You would be amazed at the ones I don’t retweet,” Trump replied. “Bimbo,” Kelly interjected, referencing the fact that Trump has [retweeted his followers](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/629553612839124992) referring to Kelly by that word. (Trump himself [tweeted](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/692312112115380224) in January, “I refuse to call Megyn Kelly a bimbo, because that would not be politically correct. Instead I will only call her a lightweight reporter!”) After quibbling over how many times Trump has used that word in his tweets and retweets to refer to Kelly, he laughed and half-jokingly said, “Excuse me.” But then the presumptive Republican nominee went back on defense: “Not the most horrible thing,” he said of the word. “Over your life, Megyn, you’ve been called a lot worse. Wouldn’t you say?” ## Transcript You've called women you don't like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals. Jeb Bush. Megyn Kelly. Hilary Clinton. Muslims. Lindsey Graham. Rubio. Rand Baul. John McCain. Rick Perry. I'm not a fan of Megyn Kelly. I don't like her. We have very stupid people in our country negotiating for us. I described Jeb Bush as a low energy individual. He's a war hero because he was captured. Hillary, that's not a president. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ APPLAUSE ] [ APPLAUSE ] Here, and why don't you apologize for her right now? No, I won't do that because I said nothing wrong. Is there anybody you would like to apologize to right now yourself? [ LAUGH ] No. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Megyn Kelly's really biased against me. She knows that. I know that. Everybody knows that. Do you really think she can be fair at a debate? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Here's the problem with political correctness. It takes too long. We don't have time. NBC Wall Street Journal just came out with a poll Headline, Trump way up, Cruz going down. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever. I never attacked him on his look, and believe me, there's plenty of subject matter right there. The simple fact is [ CROSSTALK ]. I didn't want to. Excuse me! One second No [ CROSSTALK ] More energy tonight, I like that. No [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4339581/donald-trump-megyn-kelly-bimbo-fox-special/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4339581/donald-trump-megyn-kelly-bimbo-fox-special/"},"headline":"Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly Spar Over 'Bimbo' Retweet","datePublished":"2016-05-18T01:02:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-06T09:17:17.716Z","description":"\"Megyn, you’ve been called a lot worse. 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