Why Donald Trump’s open contempt for 'nasty' women will be his downfall

Fast forward four years, and Trump’s nightmare may be about to come true. Less than a week after Joe Biden abandoned his re-election campaign and anointed Vice President Kamala Harris as the de-facto Democrat nominee, Trump is back on the stump desperately trying to undermine her campaign before she is even officially confirmed as the candidate.

Speaking at a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this week, he doubled down on his personal attacks. He repeatedly and very deliberately mis-pronounced her name, telling his baying audience that he was not going to “be nice”. He said, “So if you want socialist healthcare, nation-wrecking inflation, the death of American energy and a lying radical left liberal San Francisco extremist as your commander-in-chief, then Kamala Harris is your candidate. She’s the one for you.” More was to come. A 2021 clip of his newly chosen sidekick, Senator JD Vance, author of the best-selling memoir Hillbilly Elegy and an evangelical pro-lifer, dismissing Harris as a “childless cat lady” who wants to make the country as miserable as she is, has gone viral but perhaps not in the way Trump and his team anticipated.

Women from across the political spectrum took to social media this week to call out Vance. Actor Jennifer Aniston wrote on Instagram: "I truly can’t believe that this is coming from a potential VP of the United States."

Republicans going off Trump

Meghan McCain, the daughter of former Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, warned Republicans that attacking Harris in this way was counter-productive. She said on X (formerly Twitter): “I have been trying to warn every conservative man I know – these JD comments are activating women across all sides, including my most conservative, Trump-supporting friends.” The conservatives’ dream ticket of Trump and Vance may just have picked a fight with the women of America they are destined to lose.

Of course, Trump has considerable previous form for misogyny that may return to haunt him. Ahead of the 2016 US election, he wrote of Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton – in a later deleted tweet – that if she "can't satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America?" He also used his insult of choice for female opponents, saying she was "such a nasty woman".

Conventional political wisdom says that America is too divided to accept a liberal Californian as its next President. That there is not enough support – even among women – for a female candidate to beat Trump and his mini-me. But that was before last Sunday when Harris emerged from behind the ghostly presence of Biden and announced she was ready to run.

Harris fans ‘break’ Zoom

Within hours, members of the KHive, Harris’s online fans, reportedly named after Beyonce’s fan base the BeyHive, had raised $1.5 million dollars in a Zoom call that attracted 40,000 participants. By Monday evening, the Harris campaign had pulled in $100 million from more than a million donors.

And on Thursday night, the KHive 'broke' Zoom with the world's largest call where more than 160,000 people – mostly women – took part. The polls have also started to move her way. A CNN survey this week shows that Harris is performing much better than Biden among key groups – particularly women. In April, Biden was running neck and neck against Donald Trump among female voters. Today, Harris is polling five points ahead. 

Commentators are beginning to detect a mood swing in America. Jacob Heilbrunn, a leading political analyst and editor of the respected magazine National Interest, told a Financial Times podcast that the time could be right for a Harris victory. “The climate is perfect for Harris because she does represent the general change that the country has been thirsting for.”

And he said that Trump had no idea of what is ahead of him, saying Harris would be a formidable candidate able to “slice and dice” him on a range of issues from abortion to gun control to women’s rights.

Harris could ‘win big’

Trump would do well to watch Harris’s questioning of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh about his position on abortion during his 2018 confirmation hearing. In a single sentence, she exposed the sexism at the heart of Brett’s beliefs. “Can you think of any laws that give the government the power to make decisions about the male body?” she asked.

Kavanaugh eventually responded: “I am not thinking of any right now.” Four years later, he voted to overturn Roe v Wade, so stripping American women of their right to choose. But the women of America may be about to get their revenge, with Harris leading the charge.

If she can unite women from all backgrounds – from the mid-west to the east coast – and persuade enough men that an energetic female President is preferable to a crazy old man behind the Oval Office’s Resolute desk, she may well emerge victorious on the evening of November 5.

Trump had bet the White House on Biden still being in the race, not on facing a strong, vital woman with an infectious laugh and a sharp brain. As Heilbrunn said, “Harris could win big” and “this could be an epochal election”. In recent weeks, Trump has taken to entering his rallies to the sound of James Brown’s 1966 anthem, It’s a man’s man’s man’s world. But he may be about to find out that America belongs to women.