WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has demonstrated for years that when he is panicking about something bad happening to him — a court ruling against him, a key witness testifying against him, his campaign numbers sinking — he lashes out.
We are clearly in one of those moments.
As Vice President Kamala Harris is fast rising in the polls, now leading or tied with Trump in all seven swing states, Trump is resorting to vile sexually-themed attacks against her.
On Wednesday, Trump shared a screenshot on social media showing a photo of Harris with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Below the image, which went out to Trump’s 7.6 million followers, a person in the screenshot wrote, “Funny how blowjobs impacted both of their careers differently.”
The comment is a jab at the vice president’s 1990s-era relationship with Willie Brown, who went on to become the mayor of San Francisco — a relationship that Harris’ political opponents have been attempting to frame as a sexual quid-pro-quo — as well as a reference to former President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Trump’s post came a day after Fox News host Jesse Watters, a loyal Trump ally, accused Harris of having no stated foreign policy plans and said she would be “paralyzed in the Situation Room while the generals have their way with her.”
Not even two weeks ago, the GOP presidential nominee shared another video on social media mocking Harris for having “spent her whole damn life down on her knees,” another suggestion that she has given sexual favors for political gain. The video, which parodied the Alanis Morissette song “Ironic,” flashed images of Brown and second gentleman Doug Emhoff as that line played.
It’s disgusting, and it’s entirely predictable, say leaders of prominent women’s advocacy groups.
“This is the Donald Trump playbook, in particular, when he’s on the defensive and feels he is not driving the conversation,” said Jessica Mackler, the president of EMILY’s List, a national organization that helps elect Democratic women who support abortion rights.
“He uses these really gross, really sexist, often racist and sexual-in-nature attacks. It does two things: It panders to his base and gets them riled up, and two, it seeks to create chaos around him and he can move into whatever space that is,” she said. “So the more that we see this movement by the Harris campaign, the more we see this enthusiasm, the more he is pushed to these all-time new lows.”
Mackler added, “There is no limit.”
Trump’s campaign did not reply to a request for comment on either of the posts.
But on Friday, Trump’s vice presidential pick JD Vance defended Trump’s sexist attacks on Harris. During an interview on CNN, he was asked how Trump’s “misogynist memes” about female politicians and blowjobs are at all helpful in bringing the country together.
Trump is “a political candidate who isn’t stodgy, who likes to have some fun and likes to tell some jokes,” said Vance, currently an Ohio Republican senator. “I’d much rather have a candidate who’s willing to go off-script, who’s willing to give every interview and is willing to tell some jokes. I do think that’s how you lift people up.”
Stunningly, he added, “A politics of boring scolds telling people they can’t laugh, that is not lifting Americans up. That is tearing us down.”
Amanda Thayer, who previously led political communications at NARAL Pro-Choice America and is now vice president at Global Strategy Group, said if anything, Trump’s and Vance’s latest attacks on Harris show they don’t have anything of substance to argue.
“Just like men who can’t handle powerful and successful women have always done, Trump is resorting to vile attempts to discredit her character,” Thayer said. “But that strategy is not going to work, because it assumes there won’t be backlash from millions of women and people who are turned off by his sexist politics. … And there is no one more adept at holding him accountable for his extremism than the vice president.”
Beyond being repulsive, the posts and comments are not doing Trump any favors in winning over female voters. His campaign is already bleeding support from women furious about Republicans’ ongoing efforts to strip them of reproductive health care access. The three conservative justices Trump put onto the Supreme Court as president are the reason Roe v. Wade was struck down in 2022, and he’s hailed that decision, taking credit for the fall of Roe, as Americans nationwide struggle to navigate restrictive state abortion laws.
Trump has also suggested he’d revoke access to the abortion pill in a second term, which is the most common method of abortion.
“Sure, you could, you could do things that will be, would, would supplement,” the Republican presidential nominee said in April, in response to a question about whether he’d direct the FDA to “revoke access” to the abortion drug mifepristone in a second term.
“Absolutely,” he continued in his muddled response. “But you have to be able to have a vote, and all I want to do is give everybody a vote.”
Trump has been making these ugly smears against Harris even as he’s tried to backpedal on his anti-abortion stance, apparently trying to win back some female voters. On Thursday, he suggested he plans to vote in favor of the Florida state constitutional amendment to protect abortion access, which will be on the ballot in November.
“I think the six weeks is too short, it has to be more time,” Trump told NBC News, referring to the state’s current six-week abortion ban. “I’m gonna be voting that we need more than six weeks.”
By late Friday, Trump had changed course again, saying he would oppose the abortion rights measure.
The Republican presidential nominee has a terrible record when it comes to supporting women’s rights, or respecting women at all. Dozens of women have publicly accused Trump of sexual harassment or assault. In 2016, Trump was caught on tape bragging about being able to “grab [women] by the pussy,” and last year he was found liable for sexual abuse in a civil rape trial involving advice columnist E. Jean Carroll.
He has also shown, time and again, that he cannot handle going up against strong women in politics. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has sent him into full-blown meltdowns repeatedly over the years, and when he ran against Clinton in 2016, he made crude comments about her appearance and her character throughout his campaign. Clinton generally ignored his inappropriate personal attacks, much like Harris is doing now.
Now, with Vance added to the mix — a guy who has infuriated millions of “childless cat ladies” across America — the Republican presidential ticket is sending a pretty clear message, as Emily Martin, chief program officer for the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund, told HuffPost.
“Trump and Vance are really, very clearly, running on a platform of putting women in their place,” she said.
“From criminalizing abortion to ridiculing unmarried women to casual sexual harassment and abuse, I think they’re alienating more voters every day,” Martin added. “But they are making the bet that enough people — enough men – will respond to this positively and join them in the enjoyment of sexually humiliating women.”
“They are making the bet that enough people – enough men – will respond to this positively and join them in the enjoyment of sexually humiliating women.”
- Emily Martin, National Women’s Law Center Action Fund
Harris’ campaign declined comment on Trump’s personal attacks. This appears to be part of a broader strategy: to simply brush off Trump’s attacks on Harris’ race or gender, and stay focused on the issues currently infusing her campaign with momentum, as Trump desperately looks for a way to make the conversation about himself.
The vice president herself demonstrated this approach on Thursday night, when asked during a sit-down interview with CNN about Trump recently questioning her racial identity.
“Same old, tired playbook,” is all Harris said. “Next question, please.”
Mackler said Harris’ campaign is smart not to get caught up in commenting every time Trump goes off the rails and says something blatantly sexist or racist.
“What they are talking about right now on the Harris campaign is working,” she said. “Voters really want you to spend 99.9% of your time talking about what you are going to do, how does this affect me and my life, what does this mean for us and our future.
“It does not make sense for them to get distracted from this theme,” Mackler said.
Martin agreed the Harris campaign benefits by ignoring Trump’s misogyny, which is almost certainly going to escalate as November gets closer.
“What I take from that is that Kamala Harris is not interested in playing the victim,” she said. “I feel like people like me and the press absolutely need to call this out and name it and speak to how truly vile and despicable and beyond the pale this is.
Martin added, “I respect the decision that this conversation is really beneath her as a candidate and as a leader.”