--- title: Jeb Bush: Former Governor Insults Donald Trump on TV description: Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Jeb Bush traded insults in competing TV interviews Monday morning. canonical: https://time.com/4212085/jeb-bush-donald-trump-loser/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-08T16:46:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:52:14.605Z article:section: Politics og:title: Bush Calls Trump a "Loser," Trump Calls Him a "Stiff" og:description: The two traded insults in competing TV interviews. og:url: https://time.com/4212085/jeb-bush-donald-trump-loser/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd4d0395ba2a01c9/698876350b72e3135e6e75a9/gettyimages-501982738.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Jeb Bush Holds Town Hall At New Hampshire American Legion og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bush Calls Trump a "Loser," Trump Calls Him a "Stiff" twitter:description: The two traded insults in competing TV interviews. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd4d0395ba2a01c9/698876350b72e3135e6e75a9/gettyimages-501982738.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bush Calls Trump a 'Loser,' Trump Calls Him a 'Stiff' by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Feb 8, 2016 4:46 PM UTC  Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, speaks during a town hall campaign stop at the E. Roger Montgomery American Legion Post 81 in Contoocook, New Hampshire, U.S. on Saturday, Dec. 19, 2015\. At Tuesday's presidential debate this week Bush lobbed six full-frontal assaults on front-runner Donald Trump, who he at one point dubbed Trump a "chaos candidate." Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, speaks during a town hall campaign stop at the E. Roger Montgomery American Legion Post 81 in Contoocook, New Hampshire, U.S. on Saturday, Dec. 19, 2015\. At Tuesday's presidential debate this week Bush lobbed six full-frontal assaults on front-runner Donald Trump, who he at one point dubbed Trump a "chaos candidate."Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Feb 8, 2016 4:46 PM UTC Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Jeb Bush traded insults in competing TV interviews Monday morning. When Trump’s name came up during a word association game on MSNBC’s _“Morning Joe,”_ Bush immediately responded “loser.” The former Florida Governor had more to say about Trump, going after the rest of the GOP for not attacking the real estate mogul. “The guy’s just a real-estate guy,” Bush said. “He’s gone bankrupt four times. He’s a successful man, but he’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. So why not confront him and challenge him?” Trump would later call in to _“Morning Joe”_ to respond, calling Bush a “stiff” and saying that he wouldn’t hire him. “Jeb is an interesting duck,” Trump said. “Here’s the story on Jeb: He’s a stiff who you wouldn’t hire in private enterprise, OK? This is a stiff. This is a guy that if he came looking for a job, you’d say, ‘No thank you.’ And that’s the way it is.” Trump, the Republican front-runner, has been insulting Bush, the establishment darling trying to regain his place in the polls, since the beginning of the campaign, dubbing him a “low-energy” candidate. Bush attempted to take the high road, telling Trump at a December Republican debate: “You’re not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency.” Bush seems to have since given up, taking charge in the effort to take Trump head on—even calling the practice “therapy.” He later clapped back at Trump on Twitter, repeating the insult. > [](https://twitter.com/JebBush/status/696717836824244228) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4212085/jeb-bush-donald-trump-loser/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4212085/jeb-bush-donald-trump-loser/"},"headline":"Bush Calls Trump a 'Loser,' Trump Calls Him a 'Stiff'","datePublished":"2016-02-08T16:46:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:52:14.605Z","description":"Bush gives up on the high road","url":"https://time.com/4212085/jeb-bush-donald-trump-loser/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic","jeb bush","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd4d0395ba2a01c9/698876350b72e3135e6e75a9/gettyimages-501982738.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/bltcd4d0395ba2a01c9/698876350b72e3135e6e75a9/gettyimages-501982738.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Jeb Bush Holds Town Hall At New Hampshire American Legion","caption":"Jeb Bush Holds Town Hall At New Hampshire American Legion","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via 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/4212085/jeb-bush-donald-trump-loser/","name":"Bush Calls Trump a 'Loser,' Trump Calls Him a 'Stiff'"}}]}] ```