This month, a New York Times/Siena College poll asked voters how much they thought former President Trump respected women: a lot, some, not much, or not at all.
You’ll never guess what happened next.
A majority of men (54%) say President Trump respects women “a lot” or “somewhat.” Only 31 percent of women saw things that way.
Trump, who is known for bragging about grabbing women’s private parts and is on trial in connection with the cover-up of a porn star sex scandal, has long been accused of a certain kind of misogyny that many see as misogynistic. It has symbolized masculinity.
But the question of how wide the gender gap will become between President Trump, who attracts more support from men, and President Biden, who leads among women, is a question that already seems to be starting to emerge. It’s important to understand. Our poll found Trump with a 20 percentage point lead among men, but Biden with a 16 percentage point lead among women.
“The Democratic Party’s standard in close races is to win more women than men. Frankly, we’re behind right now,” said Serinda Lake, a Democratic pollster for Biden’s 2020 campaign. . She added, “It’s really, really important that women be as fiercely anti-Trump as men are Trump supporters.”
President Trump’s perception of respect for women is a rare example of his standing among voters declining in recent years. A Times poll found that voters view Mr. Trump more positively than they did in 2020 on issues such as his handling of the economy and law and order.
But when it comes to whether President Trump respects women, it has actually declined by a modest 4 percentage points since the poll last asked the question in 2016.
And this is a harbinger of how voters’ views of Trump will change as he receives more coverage, as his treatment of women has been prominent in the headlines for months. There is a possibility that it is. In a civil libel proceeding in January, Trump was ordered to pay $83 million in damages to a woman who accused him of rape. He belittled Nikki Haley, who was running for the Republican presidential nomination at the time, by making fun of her outfit and calling her her “birdbrain.” And now he’s in court over a sex scandal.
“The fact that it gels to the extent that it shows in the numbers is really surprising,” Lake said.
men are from mars
I called Ryan Canady, 42, one of many men who told pollsters that President Trump respects women “a lot.” He knows that President Trump is accused of concealing hush money payments to porn stars. And Canady, who works in Ohio’s booming construction industry and says he’s an independent voter, doesn’t care one bit.
“I definitely think he did that. I think that’s what he’s been doing his whole life,” said Canady, who plans to vote for Trump this fall. “Realistically, if I had that much money to shut people up, I would be throwing it at a lot of people.”
Trump’s enduring strength with male voters like Canady is one of his brightest data points. According to our latest poll, he is supported by 57 percent of men, but only 28 percent of men think he has no respect for women at all.
Canadai believes that having an affair with a consenting adult (something Trump denies) is not necessarily disrespectful. Moreover, he believes Trump’s experience in the business world likely strengthened his respect for women. “He’s a developer,” Canady said. “The real estate industry as a whole is primarily run by women.” (According to the National Association of Realtors, the number of women real estate agents is increasing, but women are underrepresented in commercial real estate and executive positions.) )
Casey Bates, a 49-year-old chef from Michigan who plans to vote for Trump, also cited Trump’s personal staffing choices to support her belief that he has great respect for women. It pointed out.
“He’s talked badly about certain women, but he’s also appointed them to high positions,” Bates said, recalling that Trump had several female press secretaries during his presidency. There is,” he said.
At the risk of asking the obvious question, I called up Republican pollster Whit Ayers and asked him why more men than women are likely to think President Trump is respectful of the opposite sex. I asked him if he thought it was expensive.
“The best explanation for that is that men are from Mars and women are from Venus,” Ayers said, adding that the best way for President Trump to improve his standing in the eyes of female voters is simply to He added that it was about “changing the subject.”
Will more women support Biden?
Because women are more likely to be Democrats, some of the gender gap between Trump and Biden is probably explained by pre-existing partisanship rather than any particular view of Trump.
Interestingly, however, even among Republicans, there remains a divide between women and men regarding how they view President Trump in terms of respect for women. Our poll found that 85% of Republican men believe President Trump respects women, compared to 72% of Republican women. It also found that there is some interest in Biden among Republicans who believe that President Trump has no respect for women.
Take Riley Grissendorf, 21, a registered Republican who lives in Missouri. Although Grissendorf agrees with President Trump’s “America First” foreign policy approach, he describes himself as a liberal on many other issues and is likely to vote for Biden in the fall. plan to do so. Part of the reason is that Trump has used “disrespectful, demeaning, and unkind” language toward women and women. He appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade and played a role in rolling back abortion rights.
“First and foremost, I’m a woman,” said Grissendorf, who works in a bookstore. “I just couldn’t bring myself to vote for someone who not only doesn’t respect me politically, but doesn’t respect me as a human being.”
Democrats hope that a renewed focus on issues like abortion rights and subsidies for child and family care will help narrow the gender gap in their favor. They need anti-Trump voters as much as they need Biden supporters.
Brittany Lombardo is a 38-year-old acupuncturist from Georgia. She’s interested in independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s environmental work, which she thinks is the best way to stop Trump, so she won’t vote for Biden in November. She said she plans to vote.
“I don’t think he respects women,” Lombardo said of Trump. “Republicans generally think of women as vessels and want to go back to the ’50s. Do you want that? No.”
What to hear at President Trump’s immunity hearing
Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will take up Trump’s presidential immunity claim, addressing a big question about presidential power. It will likely also decide whether President Trump will go on trial for trying to overturn the previous election before the next election. I asked my colleague Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for the Times, to tell me what to listen to. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
JB: What’s so important about this hearing tomorrow?
Al: Legally, it would require a court to decide on the untested question of whether a former president can be prosecuted for his official actions, something special counsel Jack Smith has said is a possibility. But the practical question is whether the court can rule quickly and cleanly enough for Smith to bring Trump to trial before the 2024 election.
JB: Listen with the ears of an expert. If things are going well for President Trump, what questions will the judges ask? And for Smith?
Al: I generally expect things to go well for Smith. It would be surprising if the court adopted the broadest form of President Trump’s argument, which essentially says that the president is above the law.
But the only way Smith can take this to trial in the coming months is if he wins outright, and if he gets it soon. So what you want to hear is how complex the judges think this issue is, that is, what counts as an official act and an unofficial act, and whether there is a distinction in the question of immunity itself. It’s about how much they think it’s necessary.
JB: Smith might win on the larger question of whether the president is above the law, but does that mean he still can’t try Trump before the election?
Al: If Smith wins a complex victory, it could be sent back to a lower court for more work, more distinctions, and perhaps even the subject of further appeals before the election is over. The practical question arises as to whether this trial can be concluded. And if the court waits until the end of its term in June to issue a ruling, there is no guarantee that it will be heard before the election, even if it firmly rejects everything President Trump has said.