Just take a look at the archives to realize the complex relationship that American President Donald Trump has with women. He insults them, humiliates them and offends them as soon as they disagree with him. Shameless, openly sexist and rude, Trump most recently offended a woman this week when he insulted a Bloomberg reporter who asked him about his relationship with deceased financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “Easy, bitch,” the US president told her Friday night as she rode on Air Force One to Mar-a-Lago, where she escapes on weekends.
There is a shameful public record of Trump’s contemptuous and sexist attitude towards women. He threatened an ABC News reporter Tuesday with revoking the network’s license after she asked him a question about her relationship with Epstein. “You are a terrible person and a terrible journalist,” the president chided her. “You should go back and learn to be a reporter. No more questions from you,” Trump added angrily at the White House, where he was meeting Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Trump’s insults sparked a swift reaction on social media, which was flooded with memes caricaturing the Republican. The president has also received criticism from members of the Democratic Party for belittling women and journalists, who simply do their jobs by asking questions.
Trump’s disparaging comments towards women are frequent, especially when it comes to politicians or journalists. The New York tycoon often berates the media who challenge him with their questions. A couple of months ago he berated an Australian journalist who asked him about his business. “Shut up,” he shouted rudely. “You’re hurting Australia a lot right now. They want to get along with me,” he threatened. “Your boss is coming to see me very soon. I’ll tell him about you.”
The occupant of the Oval Office regularly threatens media outlets critical of his policies or administration. He has sued ABC and CNN, won a lawsuit against CBS after suing them for editing an interview, and is threatening to take the BBC to court over a similar case involving a documentary about the January 2021 Capitol attacks. He has also sued American newspapers and news sites.
“Trump focuses on insults to women more than men. And these derogatory comments always have to do with their appearance. They are insults that we consider gender-related,” Elisa Lees Muñoz, executive director of the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF), told EL PAÍS by phone. “He knows what happens when a man in power insults a journalist. It is the beginning of a chain of events where words have consequences. And he invites many other men to escalate the same insult against women,” he added.
“They know exactly what they do when they start this type of behavior. It’s not just to stop the woman at that specific moment, but to make it very clear to all other women what will happen to them if they behave in an annoying way,” adds Lees, who denounces the democratic backsliding that society is experiencing. “No one wants to speak up and say what is true and what is right or wrong because they are afraid of putting themselves in the spotlight.”
“Even though the insults may seem harmless, when they come from the head of our government, they often unleash a torrent of insults against the journalist,” says the expert.
While Trump doesn’t reserve insults exclusively for women, he uses them more prolifically. A few weeks ago he lashed out at Democratic Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. “AOC (the acronym for socialist leader) has a very low IQ,” he said. He called Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to become speaker of the House, “an evil woman” when asked two weeks ago about the Democrat’s decision to retire after 40 years in the political arena.
Trump’s brashness and verbal incontinence with women contrast sharply with the coolness he maintains with his wife, Melania Trump, or the distant relationship he is said to have with his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, a Scottish immigrant. She became ill when the current US president was a child, preventing her from supervising his education for several years. The daughter of a Scottish fisherman who came to the United States at 18 to work as a cleaner, her mother is one of the few women Trump admits to admiring.
But Trump’s countless speeches are fuller of contempt for women than praise. Just a year ago, during the presidential election in which he faced Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, he said: “Kamala is mentally disabled.”
The Republican didn’t hold back even when he attacked The View host Sunny Hostin and actress Whoopi Goldberg, whom he openly insulted. “What a stupid woman,” he said of Hostin.
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