Whoever Donald Trump chooses as his running mate, let it not be a woman.
Maybe you think it’s not worth worrying about this.
But before you dismiss the vice presidency as a diversion, remember that three years ago, his vice president stood between democracy and autocracy, having noticed at the very last minute there was a Constitution that prevented Trump from overturning the 2020 election.
There is also the very real possibility that if the 78-year-old Trump were re-elected, he would not be able to complete his term.
And there is the reality: the competition has already started.
“It’s very clear that he’s running these open hearings like it’s ‘The Apprentice,'” said Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist. said of Trump to the Guardian. “He will flirt with everyone. He will make them dance. They will all degrade themselves, humiliate themselves and fight for this place.
Among those already present are Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who quickly abandoned his unlaunched campaign and followed Trump in New Hampshire. But most of the other contenders are women.
If you’re about to say, “Well, at least it could be a woman,” my answer is that it better not be.
The most obvious problem concerns the women in question. There is a representative Elise Stefanik from upstate New York (“She’s a killer“, noted Trump), who also accompanied Trump to New Hampshire. She was notably one of the first Republicans endorse Trump’s second re-election bid and say it will be “honored” serve. There is his steadfast former press secretary and current governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who carefully not denied that she wants the job. Kristi Noem, the second-term South Dakota governor who campaigned for Trump in Iowa, went as far as said she would consider he.
Less likely – but what’s predictable when it comes to Trump? – are eared nut enthusiasts Lake Kari of Arizona and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Finally, in Mitt Romney »make them crawl” mold, his main competitor Nikki Haley, who categorically declared that it was “off the table.”
All are MAGA in their politics or MAGA-adjacent — and by that I mean Haley, a former Trump official and a politician so shaky she still hasn’t had the courage to do it. denounce unequivocally Asset.
All are the kind of women Trump ostensibly likes, largely because they play into the demeaning gender stereotypes Trump basks in, whether the steely vixen in the stilettos or the broad pragmatic.
In the first case, both Noem and Lake have the appearance of a character that has always been a priority for Trump, who has told his female staffers to “dress like women.” They’re impeccably groomed in the TV-ready mold of Ivanka Trump and Kellyanne Conway.
Of the second type, there is Mean Girl Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon fantasist whose relationship to the truth rivals that of election lawyer-turned-criminal Sidney Powell, and the energetic but harmless Ms. Sanders.
Yes, these are all unpleasant stereotypes, but they’re ones that these women seem more than willing to adopt in the name of their Dark Lord.
Trump’s choice is virtually irrelevant. None of them would significantly help or harm the man whose campaign is built on the worship of the individual. None of them would likely enjoy significant power.
If Trump chooses a woman, the most certain impact will lie in the implicit and insidious message: if Trump runs with a woman, then Trump has no problem with women, and women should have no problem with him . This lack of apparently caring women should not allow Trump to benefit from the velvet blanket that a female running mate would provide.
This is – never forget – a man whose campaign should have been interrupted in the first round in 2016 after he was caught bragging about assaulting women. Although his pre-presidential record has not fully exposed Trump’s brutal sexism, the multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against him, as well as a judge’s conclusion that when a jury found Trump responsible for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll, he basically he said he raped her, cemented it.
Trump said he loved “the concept” of a female vice-president, perhaps a more revealing sentence than he had anticipated. Of course, he sees the woman more as a concept than as a reality, an accessory or a servant to support his needs. At a time when women’s rights have been significantly stripped away and threatened, this is the last vision of womanhood that America needs.
Trump also said he would choose “the best person.” Most likely it will be someone who carries out his will and doesn’t get in his way. He will choose someone who disrupts the very essence of what a vice presidential candidate should be, someone fit to assume the highest office in the land. If he chooses a woman, it will be to cover up one of the most sexist presidencies in modern history.
If Trump shares the seat with a woman in 2024, you can be sure of one thing: It will be the furthest thing from a step forward for women.
