WASHINGTON — Months after he savaged her on Twitter and elsewhere, Donald Trump told Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly that people who are bullied ‘‘gotta get over it’’ and fight back.
In an excerpt of the interview, which will be shown on the Fox network Tuesday night, Trump says he is a counterpuncher who goes after people when they go after him, only 10 times harder.
Asked whether he was ever bullied, the GOP presidential candidate said no. But he said bullying doesn’t just happen to children. ‘‘People are bullied when they’re 55,’’ he said.
Kelly responded pointedly, with a smile: ‘‘Can happen when you’re 45.’’ She is 45.
‘‘You know, it happens, right?’’ Trump went on, as if he didn’t hear her. ‘‘But you gotta get over it. Fight back, do whatever you have to do.’’
Trump took offense when Kelly confronted him in the first primary debate about crude remarks he’d made about women. He later made a comment that suggested her menstrual cycle was behind her aggressive tone, called her ‘‘third-rate,’’ and boycotted one of the debates at which she was a moderator, as his feud with Fox News escalated.
In the released excerpt, the two did not directly discuss his criticisms of her. She told ABC’s ‘‘Good Morning America’’ on Monday the tone of the interview was cordial, with tense moments, and predicted viewers ‘‘will be feeling a little uncomfortable.’’
Kelly said she asked for the interview because she wanted to get her interactions with Trump on a professional footing. ‘‘You don’t want to be the story,’’ she said. ‘‘You want to cover the story.’’
In a separate development Monday, Trump said he may have a poor relationship with Prime Minister David Cameron in light of the British leader’s criticism of Trump’s call for all Muslims to be temporarily banned from entering the United States.
Trump’s comments, broadcast on ITV’s ‘‘Good Morning Britain’’ made headlines in Britain, which claims a ‘‘special relationship’’ with America.
Trump’s suggestion of a temporary Muslim ban led to a petition signed by a half-million people demanding that Parliament hold a debate on whether he should be banned from the country. Lawmakers held the debate, but rejected a ban.
‘‘It looks like we are not going to have a very good relationship,’’ Trump said in the British interview, which was conducted in New York. ‘‘Who knows, I hope to have a good relationship with him [Cameron] but he’s not willing to address the problem either.’’
Cameron has refused to retract comments describing Trump’s proposed Muslim ban as ‘‘divisive, stupid and wrong.’’ But Cameron’s spokesman, Dan York-Smith, said the prime minister was ‘‘committed to maintaining the special relationship’’ no matter who wins the presidential election.
‘‘He has been clear that he will work with whoever is president of the United States,’’ York-Smith said.
In the interview conducted Saturday, Trump also describes London’s new mayor, Sadiq Khan, as rude for calling him ignorant. The real estate tycoon said he would remember the mayor’s hostile reaction to the idea that Khan, a Muslim, would be given an exception to the temporary ban.
