--- title: Donald Trump Strikes Back At "Little" Michael Bloomberg description: After Michael Bloomberg endorsed Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump hit back, calling him a "very little guy." canonical: https://time.com/4430725/donald-trump-michael-bloomberg-republican/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-29T15:54:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:39:43.251Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Strikes Back At "Little" Michael Bloomberg og:description: After Michael Bloomberg endorsed Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump hit back, calling him a "very little guy." og:url: https://time.com/4430725/donald-trump-michael-bloomberg-republican/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd90bbb9791e7194c/69889fbefb4eac3f5d88e7f4/trump9.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Donald Trump speaks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars conference at a campaign event in Charlotte og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Strikes Back At "Little" Michael Bloomberg twitter:description: After Michael Bloomberg endorsed Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump hit back, calling him a "very little guy." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd90bbb9791e7194c/69889fbefb4eac3f5d88e7f4/trump9.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Strikes Back At "Little" Michael Bloomberg  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jul 29, 2016 3:54 PM UTC  Donald Trump at a campaign event in Charlotte, NC, on July 26, 2016. Donald Trump at a campaign event in Charlotte, NC, on July 26, 2016.Carlo Allegri—Reuters  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jul 29, 2016 3:54 PM UTC If there’s one sure sign that an opponent has gotten under Donald Trump’s skin, it’s when he gives them a nickname. Now Michael Bloomberg knows how that feels. At a rally Thursday, Trump attacked Bloomberg without naming him, saying, “I was going to hit one guy in particular, a very little guy,” [the Washington _Post_ reports](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/07/29/i-wanted-to-hit-a-couple-of-those-speakers-so-hard-trump-says-of-dem-convention-critics/). “I was going to hit this guy so hard his head would spin, he wouldn’t know what the hell happened. And he came out of nowhere.” Trump’s own tweet Friday morning clarified who the “little guy” was, saying, “‘Little’ Michael Bloomberg, who never had the guts to run for president, knows nothing about me. His last term as Mayor was a disaster!” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/759025610249216000) The battle of the billionaires began in earnest on Wednesday when Bloomberg, the former Republican mayor of New York City who then became an Independent, [endorsed Hillary Clinton at the Democratic convention](http://time.com/4427695/dnc-michael-bloomberg-sane-competent/). “Donald Trump says he wants to run the country like he runs his business,” he said. “God help us. I’m a New Yorker, and I know a con when I see one… Let’s elect a sane, competent person with sane, international experience.” Maybe Bloomberg should consult Trump’s erstwhile foe “[Little Marco](http://time.com/4242827/donald-trump-marco-rubio-insults/?iid=sr-link1)” Rubio on how to shed the nickname. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4430725/donald-trump-michael-bloomberg-republican/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4430725/donald-trump-michael-bloomberg-republican/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Strikes Back At \"Little\" Michael Bloomberg","datePublished":"2016-07-29T15:54:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:39:43.251Z","description":"When an opponent gets under Donald Trump's skin, he gives them a nickname","url":"https://time.com/4430725/donald-trump-michael-bloomberg-republican/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election topic","Michael Bloomberg"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd90bbb9791e7194c/69889fbefb4eac3f5d88e7f4/trump9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd90bbb9791e7194c/69889fbefb4eac3f5d88e7f4/trump9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump speaks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars conference at a campaign event in Charlotte","caption":"Donald Trump speaks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars conference at a campaign event in Charlotte","creditText":"Carlo Allegri—Reuters","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/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4430725/donald-trump-michael-bloomberg-republican/","name":"Donald Trump Strikes Back At \"Little\" Michael Bloomberg"}}]}] ```