Women for Trump
Donald Trump’s popularity among certain Americans is undeniable; one could even say he has people under his spell. But what is so captivating about Trump? What is it that keeps Americans on his side even after all of the controversial and vulgar things he has said pertaining to race, sex, and ethnicity?
Trump is clearly an authentic candidate who offers solutions to average Americans’ anxieties. In recent debates, Trump has offered simple answers for almost everything and speaks in a manner that is easily understood by all. He uses simple, short sentences; unlike Hillary, he does not “talk politics.” There are also many Americans who are drawn to Trump because of his proposed policies toward immigrants. Trump’s call to “make America great again” appeals to the people who feel that America has become a country they do not recognize anymore. Additionally, Trump has strategically grabbed the support of people who are fed up with the current political establishment by constantly blaming President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the current state of the government for the nation’s problems. His supporters have come to respect his confident persona and that he has the guts to say the unexpected.
Trump’s attitudes about women have drawn the most attention during the campaign. Almost from the beginning, we have heard disparaging remarks from Trump about women that pertain to their sexuality, their appearance, or their personalities. Before the election, he was perhaps most famous for his attack of Rosie O’Donnell, calling her a slob. He said in an interview with CNN, “If I were running The View, I’d fire Rosie. I’d look her right in that fat, ugly face of hers and say, ‘Rosie, you’re fired.’” Trump has called women fat, slobs, pigs, and disgusting animals, but he has defended himself over and over, declaring each time that “No one loves women more than I do.”
Trump made headlines again after the recent release of Trump’s discussion with Billy Bush. The released tape captured Bush and Trump on a bus moments before their interview on Access Hollywood, having an extremely lewd conversation about women. In the audio, Trump discussed his failed attempt to seduce an unnamed married woman. Trump stated, “I did try to f — — her. She was married.” Moments later, Trump noticed Arianne Zucker outside his bus and made many remarks about her looks like, “ I’ve got some tic-tacs just in case I start kissing her.” and “When you’re a star, they let you do it, you can do anything.” Hillary gained a lot of traction after the tape was released; it was all anyone talked about.
At a rally in North Carolina, when confronted with another accusation of sexual assault, instead of apologizing Trump responded with more misogynistic remarks like, “Believe me, she would not be my first choice. That I can tell you. You don’t know. That would not be my first choice.” This statement implied that the women speaking out were too ugly for him to sexually assault.
Many women across the country are dumbfounded that people of their own gender could still support Trump. When asked, “Why do you think women continue to support Trump after the vulgar things he has said and the scandals that have been revealed about him,” high school Librarian Katherine Pantginis and Massachusetts State Senator Cindy Creem (full disclosure, she’s also my grandmother) responded with these statements. (Click audio link below to hear what they said.)
Although some women are shocked that other women continue to support Trump, some have confessed that they continue to support Trump just to oppose Clinton. They do not trust Clinton because of all the secrets and lies that have surfaced during her campaign including Benghazi, the deleted emails, the Clinton foundation, and even the Lewinsky Scandal (although it took place during her husband’s presidency). Some have even agreed with Trump’s tweet stating: “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?” In an interview with the Washington Post, Jeva Lang responded to the “locker room talk scandal saying, “Of course it bothers me. But is it going to make me lean toward Hillary Clinton? Absolutely not.” Many women have said that they have come to look beyond it.
Still there are other women who are not bothered by what Trump said. They excuse the whole scandal by saying that what was said is ‘just how men talk.’ Trump was just a man being a man. They accept Trump’s explanation that what was said was simply “locker room talk.” At a recent rally in West Palm Beach, Florida, Michal Geiger, a 28 year old from Wellington, Florida, stated, “For any women to think men don’t go around saying to his friends ‘look at her butt’ or ‘look at her boobs’ is lying, everybody does that.” Geiger thinks Trump’s short apology for the incident was enough and believes everyone needs to move on.
Although there is both audio and video evidence of Trump making derogatory comments about women, there is yet another group of women supporters who do not believe the subsequent accusations after this audio was released. They claim that these scandals have no place in the presidential election and that the women who have come forward with allegations against Trump are simply doing it for the publicity.
A few wives of Republican congressmen even took to the streets, chartering across North Carolina, a crucial swing state in the election, stressing why Republican women should continue to stand with their candidate. These women state that Trump’s plan for our country greatly outweighs the lewd remarks he made and the negative publicity that has resulted from them. They strategically chose to attack Clinton’s plans along the way to call attention to her flaws, making them seem worse than his. To reassure female voters, Debbie Meadows, the wife of North Carolina Republican Mark Meadows, claims, “Donald Trump’s character is not actually what we’re voting on. We’re voting on his vision, his policy and his concerns. What we share are his concerns — for national security, for changing the direction of this nation. And that hasn’t changed.” They also take offense to the assumption that just because Hillary is a woman, all women should vote for her. “It’s an insult to think I would vote for anyone based on the fact we share the same anatomy,” said LeeAnn Johnson, the wife of Rep. Bill Johnson, Ohio Republican.
There is even an independent political action committee focused on mobilizing support for Trump called, “Women Vote Trump”. The project was created by Ann Stone, former wife of Roger Stone, political consultant and long-time activist in the Virginia Republican Party. Stone explained why she created this project by stating, “It was the frustration of the Left and everyone in the media saying things about Trump that I knew were patently false.” The majority of women in America will not be voting for Trump, however the women who support him are confident that their candidate is definitely the man for the job.
