Trump tells women 'I am your protector' — and touches a nerve

On Monday, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump proclaimed himself the “protector” of women in America.

“You will no longer be abandoned, lonely or scared. You will no longer be in danger. You’re not gonna be in danger any longer,” Trump said while campaigning in Pennsylvania. “You will no longer have anxiety from all of the problems our country has today. You will be protected, and I will be your protector. Women will be happy, healthy, confident and free. You will no longer be thinking about abortion.”

Many of those claims echoed what Trump had written in an all-caps post on Truth Social about women in which he boasted, “I WILL PROTECT WOMEN AT A LEVEL NEVER SEEN BEFORE.”

Of course, the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, who could become the first female president in U.S. history, took issue with Trump’s assertions.

“Women know better — and we will not be silenced, dismissed, ignored or treated like we’re stupid,” Harris spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.

In one way, at least, Trump’s pitch to female voters makes sense. An NBC News poll released this week showed that while Trump holds a 12-point lead over Harris with male voters, he trails her by a staggering 21 points with women.

But the way Trump framed his remarks also seemed to touch a nerve with men and women alike.

“This notion that women need to be protected, that women are somehow weak or vulnerable — this sort of protectionist, patronizing tone ... I think for a lot of women will just add to that sense of he doesn’t understand their lives, that he doesn’t understand where they are on a whole host of issues,” Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, told the Associated Press.

In an op-ed for The Hill, conservative author Matt Lewis wrote, “Trump has said many things over the years that could be construed as misogynistic, paternalistic, condescending and even quasi-fascistic. But this one struck me as an underrated example of Trump revealing his dark worldview.”

In a race in which abortion rights are a central issue, thanks in part to Trump’s appointment as president of three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade, his statement that women will “no longer be thinking about abortion” could be interpreted in a number of ways.

Co-host of “Morning Joe” on MSNBC Mika Brzezinski offered a less than charitable reading.

"No, thank you. We don’t need that. Women like their rights, and they like their access to healthcare, and they like someone who tells the truth and doesn't lie constantly," she said on Tuesday’s program.

And in a biting and sarcastic piece for the Washington Post, columnist Alexandra Petri mused about Trump’s promises to women should he be reelected.

“Now, Donald Trump is back and you are not thinking about anything. All your anxieties are gone, now that men are handling all the country’s problems,” she wrote. “It would have been a mistake to put a woman in charge! Fortunately, that did not happen. Fortunately, Donald Trump is guarding you. You are guarded! You are not worrying your pretty little head.”

The Trump campaign has also heard the criticism.

“President Trump is responding directly to the concerns that he hears and our campaign hears from women across the country everyday, their fear, the very real fear that women have about being assaulted or potentially raped by criminals or illegal immigrants who have been allowed in this country,” spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told the AP.

In May 2023, a New York jury made up of six men and three women found Trump liable for sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll in a changing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan. During the 2016 presidential campaign, a video of Trump boasting of his ability to sexually assault women surfaced, but ultimately did not keep him from defeating Hillary Clinton.