'That's a retweet': Donald Trump claims he didn't call Megyn Kelly a 'bimbo' in provocative tweet

Real-estate mogul created a new storm of backlash Thursday morning when he yet again promoted a "bimbo" insult at Fox News host Megyn Kelly.

But asked about it later in the day on CNN, Trump insisted he had not used the word himself.

"That's a retweet. That's different. That's different," he said.

Amid a raging tweetstorm against Kelly and Fox News, Trump retweeted someone who posted a provocative photo of Kelly.

The tweet he promoted also asked: "And this is the bimbo that's asking presidential questions?"

In a tweet the day before, Trump said he would "refuse" to call Kelly a "bimbo" because it wasn't politically correct. He instead called Kelly a "lightweight" reporter:

That may have been a tongue-in-cheek tweet. Trump routinely shreds expectations of political correctness on the campaign trail. In his speeches, Trump also sometimes sarcastically announces all of the insults he "won't" say about his GOP rivals.

He similarly drew some backlash last year when he twice promoted tweets calling Kelly a "bimbo," a term used to insult women. One of the times Trump retweeted the insult was after Kelly, a moderator at an August debate, confronted him about past comments he had made about women's looks.

Trump has raged against Kelly and her coverage of his campaign since that debate. And the Fox host played a key role in Trump's big Tuesday announcement that he would not be attending this Thursday's Fox-hosted debate.

"I haven't had a very good relationship with her," Trump said on CNN.