--- title: Why It's So Hard to Attack Donald Trump description: Trump has plenty of adversaries, but they don't seem to be making a dent in his campaign canonical: https://time.com/4245093/donald-trump-attacks-insults-criticism/ author: Diane Tsai article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-02T21:58:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:33:25.594Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why It's So Hard to Attack Donald Trump og:description: It's unclear which lines of attack will work. og:url: https://time.com/4245093/donald-trump-attacks-insults-criticism/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6783c42ffa29d12c/69887ffb5f570fd13fb1fdf7/attacking-trump.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why It's So Hard to Attack Donald Trump twitter:description: It's unclear which lines of attack will work. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6783c42ffa29d12c/69887ffb5f570fd13fb1fdf7/attacking-trump.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why It's So Hard to Attack Trump  by [Diane Tsai](https://time.com/author/diane-tsai/)  ## Diane Tsai Mar 2, 2016 9:58 PM UTC  TIME  by [Diane Tsai](https://time.com/author/diane-tsai/)  ## Diane Tsai Mar 2, 2016 9:58 PM UTC Donald Trump is the master of the attack, but until recently he hadn’t faced many himself. The Republican front-runner, who loves to throw catchy insults at his rivals, long benefited from the fact that his fellow candidates were too busy trying to beat each other to take him on. But in recent weeks, Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have tried to beat him at his own game. But Trump is an untraditional candidate. It’s unclear yet which lines of attack will stick against him, either in the Republican primary or the general election. It’s already clear, however, that Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton’s campaign won’t wait as long as the Republican candidates did to go on offense. In the video above, TIME Politics’ Ryan Teague Beckwith, Zeke Miller and Jay Newton-Small explain why attacks against Trump have failed to take him down so far and what to expect as the race continues. Why It's So Hard to Attack Donald Trump ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4245093/donald-trump-attacks-insults-criticism/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4245093/donald-trump-attacks-insults-criticism/"},"headline":"Why It's So Hard to Attack Trump","datePublished":"2016-03-02T21:58:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:33:25.594Z","description":"Trump has plenty of adversaries, but they don't seem to be making a dent in his campaign","url":"https://time.com/4245093/donald-trump-attacks-insults-criticism/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","republicans","2016 Election topic","Sen. Marco Rubio","ted cruz","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6783c42ffa29d12c/69887ffb5f570fd13fb1fdf7/attacking-trump.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Diane Tsai","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/diane-tsai/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6783c42ffa29d12c/69887ffb5f570fd13fb1fdf7/attacking-trump.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump","caption":"","creditText":"TIME","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/4245093/donald-trump-attacks-insults-criticism/","name":"Why It's So Hard to Attack Trump"}}]}] ```