A few weeks ago at a Pennsylvania rally, Donald Trump proudly told American women that all their worries would soon come to an end:
“You will no longer be abandoned, lonely, or scared. You will no longer be in danger. […] 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, confident, and free. You will no longer be thinking about abortion.”
This sounds astoundingly rich coming from an individual with a track record like Trump’s. Someone who boasted about being able to do anything to women – including grabbing a certain private anatomical part – because of his celebrity status.
In 2023, Business Insider published a deep dive into every sexual assault and sexual misconduct allegation against the former President, listing a total of 26 women who have spoken out over the years. Trump is also known for protecting other alleged predators – not to mention hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein – one flagrant example being his administration’s handling of the sexual assault allegations levied against the now-appointed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
But recently, on Friday, Oct. 18, the Republican candidate went on The Dan Bongino Show and once again allowed his big mouth to expose a glimpse of his true colors as he defended the indefensible.
Trump could not be more of an unlovable misogynist if he tried
Have you ever imagined defending Harvey Weinstein in any circumstance? Not too long ago, comedian Josh Johnson performed a stand-up show wherein he monologued about how, in September of this year, Weinstein had to undergo heart surgery. He said: “Genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, I really do hope that he’s not OK.”
This is an objectively more normal reaction to the former media mogul than what Trump said to Dan Bongino, something so outrageous it had Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost face-palming during a Weekend Update segment.
“So, in that story. [Trump] thinks Harvey Weinstein is the one who got ‘schlonged.’ By the way, I never need to hear anyone ever say ‘schlonged’ again.”
This was not the first time the former President used the term, perhaps only the first time he used it while referring to a man. In 2015, Trump had already erroneously employed the word ‘schlong’ as a verb to refer to how Hillary Clinton got beaten in the race to the White House by Barack Obama in 2008.
When accused of using a derogatory, sexualizing, crude remark to refer to his opponent, Trump – as Trump does – took to Twitter to shield himself from criticism with his usual gaslighting methods.
The noun “schlong” is, in fact, a vulgar term for “penis.” At the time, Trump publicly used the word for the first time, The Washington Post published a “linguistic investigation” into Trump’s odd use of the vocable. The article’s author cited a Harvard professor who proposed one potential explanation for Trump’s off-putting wording choice: “Trump reached for what he thought was a Yinglish word for ‘beat’ and inadvertently coined an obscene one.”
While Jost managed to salvage his baffled psyche by balancing out Trump’s vulgarity with his acute and absolute stupidity — “Special, very special” — for us, especially women, it is hard to look anywhere else. Even if he “inadvertently” used “schlonged,” there is no end to the sexist remarks that have come out of Trump’s mouth over the years.
In this 2024 presidential race we are seeing a repeat of similar sexist bullying strategies, it could even be argued that Trump is taking his misogyny up a notch, especially in regards to his help in spreading the foul conspiracy theory that Kamala Harris’ political rise was achieved through offering sexual favors. Because, in Trump and MAGA misogynists’ world, no woman can climb as high up the career ladder as Harris without soliciting the help of a man.
Over the years, Trump’s openly sexist rhetoric has only gotten worse. And yet, he still has the gall to tell women that he will be their “protector.”