‘I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not’: Trump’s closing argument is toxic masculinity

Much has been made about the fact that Donald Trump’s campaign made one ‘joke’ in podcast host’s now infamous speech Tony Hinchcliffe during the staggeringly hateful MAGA rally on Madison Square Garden on Sunday: Calling Vice President Kamala Harris the c-word. As I wrote the Standing Room Only newsletterthis shows that the campaign knew Hinchcliffe was planning a hugely racist set. I suspect the racism was a sick form of strategy, a continuation of the Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s infamous ‘flood the zone’ tactic. Note that the Trump campaign was merely trying to distance itself from the comments calling Puerto Ricans — who have a large voting presence in some swing states — “trash.” but not from the rest of his set or the many other mean things said by other speakers.

The censorship of the c-word probably happened because it is blasphemy, not because it is misogynistic. We know this because Hinchcliffe’s other misogynistic ‘jokes’ are left in, including fantasizing about the murder of pop star Taylor Swift. “I think Travis Kelce could be the next OJ Simpson,” Hinchcliffe said of Swift’s NFL-playing boyfriend. Swift has been the object of violent ire by many MAGA leaders, including billionaire Elon Musk issued an unsubtle rape threat after Swift supported Harris for president. And that is not strange for Musk, who has often bought a spot so close to Trump’s side it looks like it has been replaced Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio. It is Musk who has shown in recent days before the elections that misogyny is of paramount importance racism as the closing argument of the Trump campaign.

While Trump’s team canceled the c-word ‘joke’ from Hinchcliffe’s set, they didn’t seem to mind that Musk’s political action committee, the American PAC, led the an ad declaring, “Kamala Harris is a c-word.Or they didn’t mind until it dawned on them that Trump’s hate rally in New York City might have backfired, and Musk quietly removed the ad. But it was too late, as progressive groups captured the image.

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Of course, no one doubts the misogyny of Musk and Trump and the MAGA movement. Just last year, a jury found that Trump had sexually assaulted journalist E. Jean Carroll. He has been accused by numerous other women, many of whom describe attacks similar to the one he bragged about in the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape. Several former Musk employees have filed lawsuits for sexual harassment and gender discrimination. But what’s a bit strange is the way the Trump campaign embraced misogyny, until this late battle. Proud misogyny is also a hallmark of Trump rallies, as we saw a few days ago when former Fox News host Tucker Carlson gave a speech in which he rolled out an incestuous BDSM fantasy. about ‘daddy’ giving ‘a good spanking’ to the ‘naughty girl’ presented as a teenage daughter.

Even when Trump promises to “protect” women, it can’t help but sound creepy or threatening. Wednesday evening, he told a crowd in Wisconsin that he wants to “protect the women of our country,” and “I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not.” Feminists have long argued that “chivalry” is just another form of male domination disguised as benevolence. Trump, as he often does, proves the feminist argument.

To add to the creep factor, Trump continued with, “Is there a woman in this stadium who wants to be protected by the president?”

Former Governor Nikki Haley, R-S.C., complained about the Trump campaign on Tuesday “bromance and masculinity stuff,” saying it will “make women uncomfortable,” which is an understatement considering Trump’s proven and alleged victims both report being traumatized by his sex crimes. But Trump is unlikely to listen to Haley. First of all, she’s a woman, so he doesn’t care what she thinks. Second, toxic masculinity is not a mistake or a blunder. It is a deliberate strategy of the Trump campaign.

The Trump campaign is well aware that its sexist antics, as well as ending abortion rights, have led to a loss of female support, which will create a record-breaking gender gap this election. As documented by numerous outlets, they think they can make up for those losses by reaching out to men with implicit – albeit unenforceable – appeals about how to get women on the right track. I saw the “women in the back” frame at the Republican National Convention, where once-rising female stars of the MAGA world, like Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake or Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, were pushed asidemostly ignored by both leaders and delegates.

It’s hard to say if this bet was bad as the polls are still in a dead heat situation over the past week. But it’s a big risk for the Republican Party, for one simple reason: women vote more than men. Trump’s campaign hopes that by exposing misogyny, it can get many of those rare male voters to the polls. That can happen. Yet it seems unwise because they avoid the more reliable female voters. If Jamelle Bouie writes in the New York TimesTrump’s gains are “less striking than Harris’s huge lead in young women.” If Harris wins, he argues, “we might look back and say we should have focused a little more on the women, young and otherwise, who most likely made the difference.” Certainly, Charlie Kirk, the head of one of Trump’s “get out the vote” operations, is concerned. Wednesday, he was concerned about women voting at higher ratesand added: “If men stay home, Kamala is president. It’s that simple.”

Who knows if Trump’s campaign leaders think misogyny is a clever tactic or if they are simply trying to make electoral lemonade out of political lemons. The latter makes sense. Trump and the men he surrounds himself with are so completely committed to hating women that there’s probably no way to convince them to tone it down. In the MAGA world, the only way to be a man is to embrace toxic masculinity. That much was made clear at a recent Q&A eventin which Musk lamented, “If masculinity is so toxic, how come the kids who are messed up don’t have fathers?”

There is no need here to rehash the long-standing debunkings of this myth: which you can read elsewhere. But it’s telling that Musk ignores that when fathers abandon their children, it’s usually a direct result of toxic masculinity. It’s toxic masculinity that tells men that taking on caregiving responsibilities is daunting. It is the toxic masculinity that teaches that a man’s role is to be a distant ‘provider’, who is barely around and who disappears completely when the relationship with his mother ends. Musk should know this, as his daughter told NBC News“He doesn’t know what I was like as a child because he simply wasn’t there,” and it’s “generous” to say he was there “maybe 10% of the time.” That’s toxic masculinity embodied: believing in “fatherhood” is about contributing DNA and putting your name on a birth certificate, but nothing more.

Of course in the MAGA world they don’t blame the men who abandon their children. They blame women. When a man like Musk walks away from his children, the right wants to accuse the mother of driving him away, usually by not being submissive enough. In the Trump/Musk worldview, men should hold all the power, but they are never expected to take responsibility for their own choices.

Trump ally and fellow Hitler praise singer Nick Fuentes illustrated this ‘childish kings’ view of masculinity in a nutshell in a recent tweet: “If Trump loses, blame women.”

First of all, the better way to phrase this is “thank women.” But this embodies the all-power-no-responsibility model of MAGA masculinity. The Republican Party nominated a candidate who ushered in the abortion ban and who, by their own admission and according to the court, is a sexual harasser. His favorite words for women are ‘filthy’ and ‘pig’. On that rare occasion, he praises a woman, almost always because she is sexually attractive to him, and not because of any talents she may have. He is explicitly waging a campaign of male resentment. That complaint is comically unfair, usually a long series of complaints that women aren’t compliant enough or that they would rather be. childless cat ladies than together with MAGA men.

On Monday, Trump advisor and Project 2025 leader John McEntee doubled down by telling women their vote is explicitly not wanted.

MAGA men threw a party with a big banner that said “Women Not Welcome” and then complained that the party was a sausage party. Hopefully it will be enough to cost Trump the election.