Bill Press: Only America’s women can save us from Donald Trump

Who could ever forget that moment? On Aug. 6, 2015, Fox News Host Megyn Kelly kicked off the first Republican primary debate by asking candidate Donald Trump: “You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs,’ and ‘disgusting animals.’ Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?” That question was relevant then, and it’s even more relevant today.

Of course, Trump responded by calling Kelly “sick,” “overrated,” and “crazy,” and alleged she was just in a foul mood because it was that time of the month: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever…” All of which is classic Trump. For him, women are nothing but objects to be insulted, ridiculed, sexually abused or raped.

This campaign’s no exception. Since she became the Democratic nominee, Trump has not engaged in any policy dispute with Kamala Harris. Instead, he’s reverted to the same playbook: deliberately mispronouncing her name, calling her a “fascist,” “communist,” “Marxist,” “radical left lunatic,” and – get this! – accusing her of having more cognitive problems than Joe Biden. Note: Anyone who watched the Harris/Trump debate knows there was one candidate on stage with serious cognitive problems – and it wasn’t Kamala Harris.

Donald Trump is the poster child of the “male chauvinist pig,” where success or celebrityhood breeds serial philanderers, groping boors, and, worse, sexual predators. Trump is a sexist pig on steroids.

Long before he was elected president, Trump’s first wife, filing for divorce, accused him of rape. He’s been accused of sexual assault by at least 26 women. On the “Access Hollywood” tape, he famously bragged about grabbing women by their private parts. He’s since been found liable by a jury and fined $88 million for raping and defaming journalist E. Jean Carroll. And he’s been convicted on 34 felony counts for covering up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

As a candidate for president, Trump took his personal war on women to the national level. He promised to nominate Supreme Court justices who’d overturn Roe v. Wade – and ever since they did so, he hasn’t stopped bragging about it. “For 54 years they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated,” Trump trumpeted recently on Truth Social, “and I did it. And I'm proud to have done it. … Nobody else was gonna get that done but me, and we did it. And we did something that was a miracle."

Ha! Trump may call it a “miracle,” but for millions of American women it’s been a disaster. Since the Dobbs decision, 14 states have effectively blocked all abortion services and three states have enacted a six-week ban – denying women access to health care, forcing many of them to bear the expense and stress of traveling to another state, and, according to ProPublica, resulting in the death of at least two women who couldn’t get the medical care they needed.

For American women, another Trump term would be even worse. Project 2025, the blueprint for a second Trump administration prepared by the Heritage Foundation, calls the Dobbs decision “just the beginning” and advocates defunding Planned Parenthood, banning the mailing of abortion pills, removing the phrase “reproductive health” from all federal rules and regulations, and urging Congress to act to “protect the unborn in every jurisdiction in America” – which is shorthand for a national abortion ban.

But now Donald Trump’s having second thoughts. He realizes Dobbs is a political loser. He knows he’s trailing Kamala Harris among women by 21 points, 58-37. So, he’s suddenly trying to paint himself as women’s savior. Campaigning in Pennsylvania last week, Trump said: “You will no longer have anxiety from all of the problems our country has today. You will be protected, and I will be your protector. Women will be happy, healthy, confident and free. You will no longer be thinking about abortion.”

I’m sorry. Apologies to any woman or man my next statement might offend. But anybody who believes that the man who ripped away from women the freedom to control their own bodies, a right they’d experienced for 50 years, is now going to be their “protector” – is an idiot.

There’s only one answer. More women than men are registered to vote, and more women actually turn out to vote. This Nov. 5, more women must do so than ever before. We can’t count on men to do it. Only America’s women can save us from Donald Trump.

(Bill Press is host of The BillPressPod, and author of 10 books, including: “From the Left: My Life in the Crossfire.” His email address is: bill@billpress.com. Readers may also follow him on Twitter @billpresspod.)