Donald Trump loves to insult his political opponents, and the Republican candidate for president has a painfully outdated playbook when he attacks women. Trump insulted fellow GOP White House hopeful Carly Fiorina’s looks in a Rolling Stone profile released Wednesday.
“Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?” he asked. Trump has already tried to explain away his remarks; he told Fox News on Thursday morning that he was talking about Fiorina’s “persona,” not her appearance. “I'm not talking about look," he said.
Trump is going to have to get some better material if he wants to make a real impact on the women he’s taken on recently. Women still face inequalities in the workplace, from inferior pay to a lack of guaranteed paid parental leave, but one of the few things almost everyone accepts now is that calling a smart woman ugly is painfully out of style.
While it’s easy to find examples of Trump’s attacks on his male opponents for the presidency, his most direct responses to women during his campaign have been clearly gendered. The most famous is his feud with Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who asked Trump about his history of derogatory comments about women. He said Kelly had it in for him, that she had "blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever," and called her a “bimbo” after suggesting she'd gone on vacation because she offended him.
The person who interviewed Fiorina about Trump's Rolling Stone comments? None other than Megyn Kelly. "Maybe, just maybe, I'm getting under his skin a little bit, because I am climbing in the polls," Fiorina said.
Trump hasn't spared Democrat Hillary Clinton, either. Trump retweeted — and then deleted — a tweet that said, "If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?” He blamed a staffer, but it's a dig of a kind with his other comments.
What will happen at the next Republican debate on September 16? Unlike at the first debate, Fiorina will be on stage with Trump and the other most popular candidates, so The Donald may to have to answer for his sexism.
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