Misogynist Trump, two women and the US presidency

It speaks of how misogyny is so deeply embedded in the United States – and now compounded with racism and rejection of immigrants of color – that Donald Trump has beaten two women, each with formidable credentials and track records, in two presidential races.

He first won the presidency in 2016, against Hillary Clinton who was then president Barack Obama’s secretary of state. This year, it was a huge defeat for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump’s “coarse rhetoric, paired with an image of hyper-masculinity, resonated with angry voters – particularly men – in a deeply polarized nation,” the Associated Press reported.

Two leading newspapers, in the US and in England, analyzed what happened:

“He played on fears of immigrants and economic worries,” the New York Times wrote. “His victory signalled the advent of isolationism, sweeping tariffs and score settling.”

Trump rode on a promise to “smash the American status quo to win the presidency for a second time… surviving a criminal conviction, indictments, an assassin’s bullet, accusations of authoritarianism and an unprecedented switch of his opponent [originally President Joe Biden] to complete a remarkable return to power.”

“(His) victory caps the astonishing political comeback of a man who was charged with plotting to overturn the last election but who tapped into frustrations and fears about the economy and illegal immigration…

“His defiant plans to upend the country’s political system held appeal to tens of millions of voters who feared that the American dream was drifting further from reach and who turned to [him] as a battering ram against the ruling establishment and the expert class of elites.”

“In a deeply divided nation,” the NYT noted, “voters embraced Trump’s pledge to seal the southern border [where thousands of immigrants have sought to enter the US] by almost any means, to revive the economy with 19th century-style tariffs and to lead a retreat from international entanglements and global conflict.”