--- title: Republican Debate: Trump Defends New Yorkers Against Cruz description: Trump fired back at Cruz for his comments about the billionaire's "New York values" canonical: https://time.com/4181975/republican-debate-trump-defends-new-york/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-15T04:11:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:26.360Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Invokes 9/11 to Defend 'New York Values' From Ted Cruz og:description: Trump fired back at Cruz for his comments about the billionaire's "New York values." og:url: https://time.com/4181975/republican-debate-trump-defends-new-york/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2269fb24295e5091/6988794ff887dc8a98e942a5/republican-presidential-debate-gop-photos-005.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3600 og:image:height: 2025 og:image:alt: US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-DEBATE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Invokes 9/11 to Defend 'New York Values' From Ted Cruz twitter:description: Trump fired back at Cruz for his comments about the billionaire's "New York values." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2269fb24295e5091/6988794ff887dc8a98e942a5/republican-presidential-debate-gop-photos-005.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Invokes 9/11 to Defend 'New York Values' From Ted Cruz > 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 [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 15, 2016 4:11 AM UTC  Republican Presidential candidate businessman Donald Trump speaks during the Republican presidential debate in North Charleston, S.C. on Jan. 14, 2016. Republican Presidential candidate businessman Donald Trump speaks during the Republican presidential debate in North Charleston, S.C. on Jan. 14, 2016. Timothy A. Clary—AFP/Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 15, 2016 4:11 AM UTC Proud New Yorker Donald Trump defended his hometown Thursday [at the Republican Debate](http://time.com/4179941/republican-debate-charleston-fox/). Texas Sen. Ted Cruz defended his remarks about Trump’s “New York values,” which the billionaire took as a negative remark towards the Big Apple. Trump fired back with praise of the city’s handling of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, saying “when the World Trade Center came down, I saw something that no place on Earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York.” “And the people in New York fought and fought and fought. We saw more death and even the smell of death, nobody understood it and it was with us for months; the smell, the air,” continued Trump. “And we rebuilt downtown Manhattan and everybody in the world watched and everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorkers. And I have to tell you that was a very insulting statement that Ted made.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4181975/republican-debate-trump-defends-new-york/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4181975/republican-debate-trump-defends-new-york/"},"headline":"Trump Invokes 9/11 to Defend 'New York Values' From Ted Cruz","datePublished":"2016-01-15T04:11:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:26.360Z","description":"Trump fired back at Cruz for his comments about the billionaire's \"New York values\"","url":"https://time.com/4181975/republican-debate-trump-defends-new-york/","keywords":["Debates","2016 Election","ted cruz","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2269fb24295e5091/6988794ff887dc8a98e942a5/republican-presidential-debate-gop-photos-005.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2269fb24295e5091/6988794ff887dc8a98e942a5/republican-presidential-debate-gop-photos-005.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-DEBATE","caption":"Republican Presidential candidate businessman Donald Trump speaks during the Republican presidential debate in North Charleston, S.C. on Jan. 14, 2016.","creditText":"Timothy A. 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