Trump wants to reduce women’s deficit, but does not change his attitude towards them

GASTONIA, North Carolina – Donald Trump says he will be a “protector” of women, whether they like it or not.

He campaigns with men who use sexist and crude language. He expressed concern that wives might vote differently than their husbands.

And the former Republican president suggested that the Democrat Kamala Harriswho is trying to become the first woman to win the White House will be “amazed” and “melt down” when faced with authoritarian male leaders whom he views as tough.

In the final days of his campaign, Trump embraced a gendered worldview that his critics see as outdated and paternalistic, even as he acknowledges that some of that language got him “so much trouble” with an important group of voters.

Trump and some of his most prominent allies promoted outright sexism.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, at an event with the Republican presidential candidate, compared Trump to an angry father giving tough love to a “bad little girl” who, as Carlson put it, “needed a vigorous spanking.”

Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point, which plays a key role in the get-out-the-vote campaign, said any person who votes against Trump “not a man.” Kirk also said that wives who secretly vote for Harris are “undermining their husbands,” describing a man “who is probably working as hard as he can to make sure she can go and have a nice life and provide for the family.”

Trump laughed and made a crude joke about Harris on Saturday night, nearly a week after speaker at a rally in Madison Square Garden suggested that the vice president was like a prostitute controlled by “pimps.” As Trump repeated his claim When the unsubstantiated claim was made that Harris had lied about working at McDonald’s in her youth, someone in the crowd shouted, “She worked on the corner.”

Trump laughed, looked around and pointed to part of the crowd.

“This place is amazing,” he said to applause. “Just remember, these are other people talking. It’s not me.”

Trump has faced a persistent gender gap since Harris entered the race in July. Women are far more likely to say they support Harris than Trump, with double-digit differences in some polls.

That could be enough to prove decisive in a fight that both sides expect will be extremely tense and will end on Tuesday.

Women generally vote more often than men. They made up 53% of the electorate in 2020, according to AP VoteCast. Of the nearly 67.2 million Americans who have already voted, about 53% are women and 44% are men, according to TargetSmart, a political data company.

“Now is not the time for them to get too masculine in this bromance they’ve started,” he said. Nikki Haleywho was competing with Trump for the GOP nomination this year, in a recent interview with Fox News. “Women will vote. They care about how they are spoken to. And they care about these problems.”

Trump did not campaign with Haley, who served as U.N. ambassador during his administration, despite her offers to appear with him.

Trump aggressively courted men. Trump’s team has spent months trying to reach young men, particularly with interview series on popular podcasts aimed at men, as well as appearances at football matches and mixed martial arts fights. His campaign was dominated by a masculine style, as was evident when former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan ripped off his shirt when he took the stage at the Republican National Convention and later at a rally at Madison Square Garden.

The song “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World” is often played at Trump events.

It was always expected that Trump would face problems with women this year after nomination of three Supreme Court judges who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutionally guaranteed right to abortion and ushering in a wave of restrictions in Republican-led states.

But his efforts to win back women often failed.

Speaking Saturday in Gastonia, North Carolina, at his first of nearly a dozen rallies in the final weekend of the race, Trump acknowledged he received backlash for saying he would “protect” women as president. Nevertheless, he continued to repeat this phrase, insisting that women loved him and that he was right.

“I believe that women need to be protected. There should be men, children, everyone. But women need to be protected where they are at home, in the suburbs,” he said. “When you’re home alone and you’ve got this monster who’s out of jail and facing six charges of murdering six different people, I think you’d prefer Trump.”

The Trump campaign believes his focus on crime and illegal immigration will help him win over “security moms.” At his rallies, he told the stories of mothers whose children were killed by people in the country who were in the United States illegally. They include Alexis Nungaray, whose 12-year-old daughter Jocelyn was killed by two suspected Venezuelan gangs. members.

The campaign also believes that Trump Frequent condemnation of transgender rights holds power.

On Saturday in Salem, Virginia, Trump brought athletes from Roanoke College to the stage where a transgender woman asked and then withdrew her request to join the women’s swim team.

In a statement, Trump campaign spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt defended Trump’s approach. “Women deserve a president who will protect our nation’s borders, remove violent criminals from our neighborhoods and build an economy that helps our families prosper – and that’s exactly what President Trump will do,” she said.

Several at his rallies said they welcomed Trump’s pledge to be a “championer.”

“I want protection. I mean, we all do it, right? We don’t want to feel insecure,” said Kim Saunders, 52, a small business owner who lives in Williamsburg, Virginia. “It’s such a scary feeling. So it makes me very happy when someone protects me and a man protects me.”

She said she can’t understand why women support Harris, but believes men are drawn to Trump because “he’s that alpha male. As for me, I love an alpha male. I grew up with a father who was an alpha male.”

Meanwhile, Harris captured to Trump’s remarks, emphasizing them in speeches and online.

The vice president has tried to appeal to her own side of the gender gap, appearing on podcasts and giving interviews particularly targeting black men, a traditionally Democratic base in which Trump appears to be gaining traction. In an interview with CNN on Saturday, she was asked if she believed women could make a difference in this election.

“I believe all Americans will make a difference. And I intend to become the president of all Americans,” she said.

Trump rejected a suggestion from Harris’ top deputy, Mark Cuban, that Trump doesn’t surround himself with strong, smart women. Trump notes that he hired women to run his campaigns in 2016 and 2024.

But as he has sought to undermine Harris, who is the first woman elected vice president, Trump has repeatedly turned to gendered language.

“She definitely won’t be able to cope with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, Chinese President Xi. It will overwhelm, melt and millions of people will die,” he said on Saturday.

On Saturday night, he repeated his claim that he is the “father of fertilization,” awkwardly and falsely accepting responsibility for the fertilization procedure that was briefly outlawed in Alabama by the State Supreme Court overturning Roe.

And at recent rallies Trump, who was found guilty of sexual assault and was more than two dozen women are accused about sexual harassment, noticed female supporters in the audience and thought that he could no longer call them beautiful.

“You have to be very careful. Everything you say. You know, there are very beautiful women among the audience. I would never say that,” Trump said. “If I said they were beautiful, it would be the end of my political career.”

___ Cooper reported from Phoenix.