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

GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) — Donald Trump says he will be a “champion” for women whether they like it or not.

He has campaigned with men who use sexist and crude language and express concern that wives may vote differently than their husbands.

And the former Republican president suggested that Democrat Kamala Harris, who is trying to become the first woman to occupy the White House, would be “overwhelmed” and “melt” in the face of authoritarian male leaders whom he views as tough.

In the final days of his campaign, Trump has presented a gendered worldview that his critics say is outdated and paternalistic, even as he acknowledges that some of that language has caused him “so much trouble” with an important group of voters.

Trump and some of his most prominent allies promote blatant 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 man who votes against Trump is “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 off a crude joke about Harris on Saturday night, nearly a week after a speaker at his Madison Square Garden rally suggested the vice president was like a prostitute controlled by “pimps.” When Trump repeated his claim, made without evidence, that Harris had lied about working at McDonald’s as a 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.

At the same time, Trump aggressively courted men. Trump’s team has spent months trying to reach young men, in part through a series of interviews on popular podcasts aimed at men, as well as appearances at football games 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.

“This is not the time for them to be overly masculine in this bromance that they’ve started,” Nikki Haley, who competed with Trump for the GOP nomination this year, said 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 was always expected to face problems with women this year after nominating three Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutionally guaranteed right to abortion and ushering in a wave of restrictions in states. led by Republicans.

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.”