Trump wants to reduce his deficit in contacts with women, but he does not change the way he talks about them

GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) — Donald Trump says he will be a “defender” of women, whether they like it or not.

He campaigns with men who use sexist and vulgar language. He expressed concern about the idea that wives could vote differently than husbands.

And the former president of the Republican Party suggested it to Democrats Kamala Harriswho is trying to become the first woman to win the White House, would be “overwhelmed” and “melted” in the face of male authoritarian leaders whom she considers tough.

In the final days of his campaign, Trump clung to a gender-sensitive worldview that his critics consider outdated and paternalistic, though he acknowledges that some of that language got him “in so much trouble” with a key group of voters.

Trump and some of his most important allies they promoted overt sexism.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, at an event with the Republican presidential candidate, compared Trump to an angry father showing tough love to a “bad little girl” who, as Carlson put it, “needed a vigorous spanking.”

Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point, which plays a key role in the “stop voting” campaign, said any a man who votes against Trump he is not “human.” Kirk also said that wives who secretly vote for Harris are “undermining their husbands,” describing a man “who is probably working on himself to make sure she can go out and have a nice life and provide for her family.”

On Saturday night, Trump laughed and made a crude joke about Harris, almost a week after speaker at a rally at Madison Square Garden suggested that the vice president resembled a prostitute controlled by “pimps.” As Trump reiterated his claim, without evidence that Harris had lied about working at McDonald’s in her youth, someone in the crowd shouted, “She worked on the corner.”

Trump laughed, looked around and pointed to part of the crowd.

“This place is amazing,” he said to cheers. “Just remember it’s other people saying it. It’s not me.

Since Harris entered the race in July, Trump has grappled with a persistent gender gap. Women are much more likely to say they support Harris than Trump – in some surveys the percentage is in the double digits.

That could be enough to prove decisive in an extremely tight race that both sides hope will end on Tuesday.

Women generally vote more often than men. According to AP VoteCast, they made up 53% of the electorate in 2020. Of the nearly 67.2 million Americans who have already voted, about 53% are women, compared to 44% of men, according to TargetSmart, a political data company.

“It’s not the time for them to get too masculine with this bromance they have,” she said Nikki Haleywho, in a recent interview with Fox News, was competing with Trump for the Republican Party nomination this year. “Women will vote. They care about how you talk to them. And they care about the problems.”

Trump did not campaign with Haley, who was a U.N. ambassador during his administration, despite her offer to appear with him.

Trump is aggressively courting men. Trump’s team has been trying for months to reach younger men in particular through messaging series of interviews in popular podcasts dedicated to men and performances at football matches and mixed martial arts fights. His campaign is dominated by machismo, as seen when former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan ripped off his shirt while walking on stage at the Republican National Convention and later during a rally at Madison Square Garden.

The song “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World” is often played at Trump events.

Trump was always expected to face challenges related to women this year appointment of three judges of the Supreme Court who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutionally guaranteed right to abortion and ushering in a wave of restrictions in Republican-led states.

However, his efforts to win back the women often ended in failure.

Speaking Saturday in Gastonia, North Carolina, during his first of nearly a dozen rallies during the final weekend of the race, Trump acknowledged the harsh criticism he received for saying that as president he would “protect” women. Nevertheless, he repeated this sentiment, insisting that women loved him and that he was right.

“I believe that women should be protected. Men must be there, children, everyone. But women must be protected where they feel at home, in the suburbs,” he said. “When you’re home alone and you have this monster who’s out of prison and has, you know, six counts of murdering six different people, I think you’d rather have Trump.”

The Trump campaign believes that focusing on crime and illegal immigration will help him win over “security mothers.” At his rallies, he featured stories of mothers whose children were killed by people of this country who were in the United States illegally. This includes Alexis Nungaray, whose 12-year-old daughter Jocelyn was killed by two suspected Venezuelan gang members.

The campaign also believes that Trump frequent condemnation of transgender rights holds power.

On Saturday in Salem, Virginia, Trump brought Roanoke College track and field athletes to the stage, where a transgender woman asked and then withdrew her request to join the women’s swim team.

In a statement, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt defended Trump’s approach. “Women deserve a president who will secure our nation’s borders, remove violent criminals from our neighborhoods and build an economy that helps our families thrive — and that’s exactly what President Trump will do,” she said.

Several attendees at his rallies said they welcomed Trump’s promise to be a “defender.”

“I want protection. I mean, we all do it, right? We don’t want to feel like we’re not protected,” said Kim Saunders, 52, a small business owner who lives in Williamsburg, Virginia. “It’s a terrifying feeling. That’s why I feel really good when someone protects me and a man protects me.

She said she couldn’t understand why women supported Harris, but she believed men were attracted to Trump because “he’s that alpha male.” As for me, I love the alpha male. I grew up with a dad who was an alpha male.

Meanwhile, Harris took control to Trump’s remarks, highlighting them in speeches and online.

The vice president has tried to address her own side of the gender disparity issue by appearing on podcasts and giving interviews specifically aimed at black men – a traditionally Democratic constituency where Trump appears to be making progress. On Saturday, in an interview with CNN, she was asked whether she thought women would play a role in this election.

“I believe all Americans will make a difference. And I intend to be the president of all Americans,” she said.

Trump rejected a suggestion by Harris’ top deputy, Mark Cuban, that Trump doesn’t surround himself with strong, intelligent women. Trump notes that he hired women to run his 2016 and 2024 campaigns.

But in an attempt to undermine Harris, who is the first woman elected vice president, Trump repeatedly turned to gender-related language.

“He certainly won’t be able to deal with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and Chinese President Xi. It will be overwhelmed, it will melt and millions of people will die,” he said on Saturday.

On Saturday night, he repeated his claim to be the “father of fertilization,” awkwardly and falsely claiming credit for an infertility treatment that it was briefly banned in Alabama state Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe.

And at recent rallies, Trump, who was there found guilty of sexual abuse and it was accused by over twenty women about sexual harassment, he noticed supporters of this organization in the audience and began to wonder why he could no longer call them beautiful.

“You have to be very careful. Everything you say. You know, there are very beautiful women in the audience. I would never say that,” Trump said. “If I said they were beautiful, it would mean the end of my political career.”

___ Cooper reported from Phoenix.