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Trump Asked Women If They Knew Who Susan B. Anthony Was & Twitter Wasn't Having It

Andrea González-Ramírez
March 30, 2017, 3:10 PM
A household name in the women's suffrage movement was trending on Twitter during Women's History Month, but not for the reason you would expect.
On Wednesday, President Trump held a women's empowerment panel at the White House. There, he said his administration would try to make childcare more affordable, praised his wife Melania's poll numbers, and joked about suffragist Susan B. Anthony.
During his speech, he listed some of the women who have made history, such as first lady Abigail Adams and abolitionist Harriet Tubman.
The president also told the crowd, "And we've had leaders like Susan B. Anthony. Have you heard of Susan B. Anthony? I'm shocked that you've heard."
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It was pretty obvious that Trump was just being sarcastic. Of course the women in the panel know about Anthony. (Or at least, we hope so.) But some people on Twitter still didn't find his joke charming, because it sounded an awful lot like mansplaining.
A couple of users pointed out that women did know who Anthony was, thank you very much. In fact, her grave was visited by a lot of people on the day of the 2016 general election.
Some people gave a quick and dirty history lesson to Trump.
Other users just poked fun at the president's question, because it sounded eerily similar to when he mentioned Frederick Douglass during an event kicking off Black History Month back in February. At the time, Trump was mocked because it seemed he had no idea who Douglass was or even that he was dead.
"Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice," he said.
There was inevitably a joke about Anthony trending on Twitter.
And understandably, some people were just in awe at the absurdity of it all. 2017, man.
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