With polls showing Donald Trump trailing Kamala Harris by wide margins among women voters, the former president has taken a surprising number of counterproductive steps in recent weeks.
In early September, for example, the Republican thought it’d be a good idea to lash out at some of the women who’ve accused him of sexual misconduct, at one point suggesting that some of his accusers weren’t attractive enough to attack. In late September, he said women would forget all about the importance of reproductive rights after he made their lives more “beautiful.”
As October began, Trump thought it’d be a good idea to present himself as a “protector” who would save women from fear and unhappiness. And as October comes to an end, the GOP candidate is adding some related thoughts, which probably won’t do his campaign any favors. NBC News reported:
Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would “protect” women “whether the women like it or not,” a comment the Harris campaign immediately pounced on. Trump said at his rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, that his “people” previously told him they did not think he should say that he wanted to “protect the women of our country,” comments he has previously made on the campaign trail.
The former president told his audience that his aides told him that when he described himself as a “protector” for women, it was “inappropriate.” After complaining that he pays his advisers “a lot of money,” Trump concluded, “I said, ‘Well, I’m gonna do it whether the women like it or not.”
Trump: I told women I will be their protector. They said, ‘Sir, please don’t say that.’ Well I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not pic.twitter.com/LLWFa2NtQr
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 31, 2024
I’m going to go out on a limb and say this was not a smart move.
“Donald Trump thinks he should get to make decisions about what you do with your body,” Harris said online. “Whether you like it or not.”
A Harris campaign spokesperson, Sarafina Chitika, added that the Republican nominee “thinks he knows better than the women of America.”
To be sure, the idea that Trump expects to “protect” women is problematic enough — which is why, by the former president’s own admission, his campaign team has told him to stop saying it.
Indeed, the pitch isn’t just rooted in creepy paternalism, it also offers his critics an opportunity to highlight the disconnect between the message and the messenger. After all, so many women have accused the Republican candidate of sexual misconduct that I’ve literally lost count (he denies any wrongdoing); Trump was recorded bragging about his willingness to grab women’s genitals because he’s a “star”; and last year, a jury in New York found Trump liable for sexually abusing a woman.
And did I mention that he took credit for the demise of Roe v. Wade protections that were widely popular with American women? Because Trump did that, too. It’s difficult to think of a worse “protector.” But his “whether they like it or not” comments take this to another level. With just days remaining before Election Day 2024, Trump was effectively describing a vision in which he doesn’t just plan to offer protections, he intends to impose protections. If Democrats are very lucky, this will remain part of the former president’s closing message for the next few days. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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