Another sexist comment from Trump is discouraging, unacceptable

Kernel+Opinion+SIG

Kernel Opinion SIG

After another sexist remark in a long line of misogynistic behavior from our country’s president, I am even more discouraged. 

On Monday, Oct. 1, President Donald Trump held a press conference in the Rose Garden at the White House, where he insulted a female reporter, Cecilia Vega, who is a White House correspondent for ABC News. The exchange occurred as follows:

Trump called on Vegan. “She’s shocked that I picked her,” he said. “She’s, like, in a state of shock.”

“I’m not,” Vega said. “Thank you, Mr. President.”

“I know you’re not thinking,” he said. “You never do.”

According to a USA Today article that includes a brief transcript of this interaction, Trump seems to have misunderstood “thank you” for “thinking.”

“I’m sorry?” Vega asked for clarification.

“No, go ahead,” Trump told her. “Go ahead.”

Amid the heated controversy of the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation, this story did not get much traction in the news cycle. After all, it just further conveys Trump’s misogynistic views. Trump himself bragged about sexual assault on the Access Hollywood tapes released just weeks before the 2016 election. He has numerous sexual assault allegations against him and he has also supported alleged sexual assaulters for government positions, like Roy Moore and Brett Kavanaugh.

He has made many derogatory comments toward women in the past, like saying (then) Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly had “blood coming out of her wherever” (an allusion to menstruation) in response to a presidential debate she moderated.

He has also used gender-based insults in his battle against his former presidential opponent Hillary Clinton and Rosie O’Donnell, and he has said he would date Ivanka Trump if she wasn’t his daughter. He insulted former presidential candidate Carly Fiorina based on her looks and suggested punishing women for abortions.

But why does all this matter? Trump’s supporters still support him, and no amount of blatant sexism will turn any of them off. The cynic in me sees no use in even writing this article. This incident is just another item on the long list of horrible stuff he has done. But the optimist (I’m hesitant to say realist) hopes that more and more of his supporters start to wake up to see who he really is., and that the 53 percent of white women who voted for him realize that he does not care about them.