When President Trump tapped out a tweet that sought to humiliate MSNBC journalist Mika Brzezinski, he inadvertently gave us another glimpse into his own character, and into the essence of sexism that women have battled across the ages.
His crass, bullying message was aimed at Brzezinski and at her “Morning Joe” co-host, Joe Scarborough, attacking them for criticizing him on their show. What’s most interesting here is the way in which Donald Trump attacked them. He called Scarborough “Psycho Joe” (that’s clever name-calling for an 8-year-old), while against Brzezinksi, he unloaded a textbook tirade of sexist invective.
He called her “low I.Q Crazy Mika,” and went on to say (falsely) that he saw her “bleeding badly from a face-lift.” Forget (but don’t ignore) that the tweet was full of lies. The point here is that Trump tried to paint a prominent female journalist as mentally unhinged and resorting to surgery to improve her appearance.
Disparaging women for their appearance is the most stubborn of sexist practices. Calling women crazy is another one of the oldies, going back to the word “hysterical,” from the Latin for uterus.
Then there is Trump’s creepy obsession with women’s blood, which we have seen before. He deployed it against Megyn Kelly, another serious journalist, when she was tough on him during one of the debates. He said she had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”
Trump has a particularly difficult time dealing with criticism from women. Recall that he seemed to refuse to shake hands with the German leader, Angela Merkel. With men, it’s a contest of muscle power and macho drama, as we saw with French President Emanuel Macron.
Trump’s presidency has always been about turning back the clock. From his backward-looking vow to make American great again, to an agenda focused on undoing rather than doing. But his personal push to reverse progress is most visible in his treatment of women.
We can only hope those views will not make their way into legislation, but there is no question that they are stitched into his psyche.
The most deeply entrenched sexist reflex in society is judging women, above all else, by their looks. Women, like all individuals, want to be viewed as full human beings, but it’s not that simple, especially with powerful men bound by obsolete views.
Trump put on a cringe-worthy display in the Oval Office this week during a phone call to Ireland’s new Prime Minister before a group of reporters, pausing to tell an Irish journalist in the room to approach the desk and remaking that “she has a nice smile.”
During the campaign, he once ridiculed another Republican candidate, Carly Fiorina, saying, “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?”
Criticism of his male primary challengers was also childish and inappropriate, but he never addressed their handsomeness. Instead, he mocked the appearance of Ted Cruz’s wife.
Beyond judging women by their looks and using their appearance as a weapon for humiliation, Trump holds to a much more damaging sexist belief: the notion that men are somehow entitled to a woman’s body even against her will. He admitted as much in the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape. (Read the transcript, watch it again.) “I did try and f—-k her,” he said, speaking of a television personality. “When you’re a star,” he bragged, you can “Grab’em by the p—y. You can do anything.”
When a woman came forward to say he sexually assaulted her, he defended himself explaining she was too ugly for him to assault. “Believe me,” he cracked, “she would not be my first choice.”
To be sure, Trump has promoted women to powerful positions. There are a handful of high-ranking women in his administration. By all appearances he respects the skills and talents of his daughter Ivanka, for example. But even with her he made a remark they probably both wish would disappear from Internet servers.
“She does have a very nice figure,” he said a decade ago on “The View.” “…If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I would be dating her.”
Trump doesn’t like anyone to challenge him, to mock him, to disparage him. No one does. But he is extraordinarily thin-skinned for a man whose success should provide enough reassurance. He remains incapable of overlooking any criticism. And when the criticism comes from women, it seems even harder to ignore. It’s worth noting that a man who cannot tolerate criticism from the press should not have sought the presidency in a democracy, but that’s another matter.
Thursday’s grotesque outburst produced criticism even from Republicans, who have seemed willing to ignore his transgressions up to this point.
Is this all a clever strategy? Surely, attacking the media plays well with his base. But there is more. This behavior, this language, not only embarrasses the country. It’s politically counterproductive.
I will not venture a diagnosis of Trump’s mental health. Others are hard at work on that.
But I will say that Trump is perpetuating a harmful, deeply offensive form of sexism. Polls say only 28% of women approve of his performance as President, a number likely to fall even further after his latest tirade. He may think he’s making American great again. From the perspective of most women, he represents a threat to hard-won gains after many years of struggling. It’s no wonder Trump is making feminism great again.