The Plight of the Woman Trumpist
When CNN’s Manu Raju asked Senator Martha McSally of Arizona whether she’d vote to “consider new evidence as part of the impeachment trial,” the Republican, flanked by two staffers, barely looked up as she called Raju a “liberal hack.” She then repeated the insult theatrically. McSally was trying her best to show that she’s a stalwart defender of President Donald Trump and, more than that, a true Trumpist. On the face of it, women fit oddly into Trumpism—a movement headed by a man who has responded to accusations of sexual assault with the deeply misogynistic statement, “She’s not my type.” More substantively, The Atlantic noted in 2018, “by some measures the White House has assembled the most preponderantly male team since the Reagan administration.” More ethereally, the “Make America great again” slogan suggests nostalgia for a time when men were men and women stayed at home.
