This is what rape culture looks like – in the words of Donald Trump ( Republished with permission of the Gaurdian UK) f

This is what rape culture looks like – in the words of Donald Trump

Look up objectification and victim blaming, and the Republican presidential nominee is a textbook case of offensive attitudes toward women
Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event earlier this year as in daughter, Ivanka, and his wife, Melania, continue to support the foul-mouthed Republican nominee. Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters

Why are we all so shocked by the sexual assault allegations againstDonald Trump? It has always been clear that his attitudes toward women are dangerously retrograde; he’s never tried to hide who he is. Quite the opposite in fact; he’s built a successful brand out of being an offensive playboy who’s allowed to get away with it. In short, he’s built his entire career on the foundation of what feminist academics call “rape culture”.

If you’re confused by the term, “rape culture” describes the normalization of sexual violence in society – and it’s this very normalization that makes it a difficult thing to explain. Rape culture doesn’t so much actively encourage rape as passively condone it. You can’t pin it down to one particular thing; rather it’s the accumulation of a number of social norms that perpetuate the idea that women are sexual objects, and that sexual objectification is simply a fact of life.

Trump is a one-man textbook of such norms. So let’s use him as such. I’ve broken down the various assumptions, stock phrases, and social expectations that, together, constitute rape culture. Trump has helpfully provided examples of each.
Women are sexual objects, to be judged as such


'I'm a gentleman': Trump menaces Clinton with imposing presence and brash insults

“Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president? I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not s’posed ta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?” – Trump describing his then Republican primary rival Carly Fiorina in Rolling Stone, 2015

“A person who is flat-chested is very hard to be a 10.” – The Howard Stern Show, 2005

“If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?” – Donald Trump retweeted this in 2015, later deleted

“I’d pay a lot of money [for Rosie O’ Donnell not to give me oral sex]. That’s one of the most unattractive people. She took great offense at the fact I said she better be careful or I, or one of one friends would go and pick up her wife.” – The Howard Stern Show, 2007

Young girls are sex objects in training
“I am going to be dating her [a young girl] in 10 years.” – In a 1992 video in which a 46-year-old Trump ogles a group of young girls and jokes about how he’d be “dating” one of them in 10 years.

“I’ve known Paris Hilton from the time she’s 12. Her parents are friends of mine, and, you know, the first time I saw her, she walked into the room and I said, ‘Who the hell is that?’ … Well, at 12, I wasn’t interested... They’re sort of always stuck around that 25 category.” He then went on to admit he’d watched her sex tape.” – The Howard Stern Show, 2003

Even Trump’s daughter isn’t exempted from objectification
“[Ivanka]’s got the best body.” – The Howard Stern Show, 2003

“If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her” – The View, 2006
Objectification is actually an honour. No woman wants to be ‘unfuckable’

“Look at her…I don’t think so.” – Trump’s response to People magazine journalist Natasha Stoynoff’s claims that he sexually assaulted her during an interview.
Women are manipulative and use their bodies to control men

“I have seen women manipulate men with just a twitch of their eye – or perhaps another body part.” – Trump: The Art of the Comeback, 1997





Here is Donald Trump's response to suggestions he is a "sexual predator"

Women can’t control their desires so men have to do it for them

“All of the women on ‘The Apprentice’ flirted with me – consciously or unconsciously. That’s to be expected.” – How To Get Rich, 2004
If you’ve got enough money or fame, women will let you do anything to them

“When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything …Grab them by the pussy … You can do anything.” – off-camera remarks on Access Hollywood, 2005

“Women find his power almost as much of a turn-on as his money.” – Donald Trump describing himself, as quoted in The Narcissist Next Door by Jeffrey Kluger

Women want to be degraded

“Women, you have to treat ‘em like shit.” – New York magazine, 9 November 1992
Women use their looks as currency, as a way to get ahead.

“You wouldn’t have your job if you weren’t beautiful.” – Interview with a female reporter at a Miss Universe event in Las Vegas, 2014

“It’s certainly not groundbreaking news that the early victories by the women on ‘The Apprentice’ were, to a very large extent, dependent on their sex appeal.” – How To Get Rich, 2004

“It must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees” ; Trump to actor Brande Roderick when she asked Trump if she could be the next project manager on – Celebrity Apprentice: All Stars, 2013

“Some of the women that are complaining, I know how much [Roger Ailes] helped them…” – Trump to NBC, as sexual assault allegations against former Fox head Roger Ailes started piling up in July 2016

 In a video @realDonaldTrump on @HowardStern, Trump jokingly refers to women he's slept w/ as "victims".https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwJXyKKKyW0 …

Women who like sex are sluts

“Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a US citizen so she could use her in the debate?” – Twitter, September 2016
It’s just biology; men can’t help themselves from assaulting women.

“26,000 unreported sexual assults [sic] in the military-only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?” – Twitter, May2013
Men decide when women can take offense

When asked about his treatment of women and the Access Hollywood audio during the second presidential debate he offered up the following excuses:

“This was locker room talk.”

“What [Bill Clinton] did was far worse … and Hillary Clinton attacked those women.”

“It’s just words, folks. It’s just words.”

“If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse. Mine were words and his was action.”

“It is things that people say.”

“When Hillary brings up a point like that and she talks about words that I said 11 years ago, I think it’s disgraceful, and I think she should be ashamed of herself.” (This was followed by applause)

Victim blaming

At a rally in Florida on 13 October, Trump told his supporters that the allegations women had made about him weren’t true. Describing them as: “False smears.” “Horror show of lies, deceptions and malicious attacks.”

“Why wasn’t it part of the story that appeared 20, or 12 years ago?”

“They will seek to destroy everything about you, including your reputation. They will lie, lie, lie, and they will do worse than that.”

Rape culture begets rape culture

The most pernicious thing about rape culture is that it’s self-perpetuating. Women are afraid to come forward about sexual assault because they’re worried they won’t be believed. When they do have the courage to come forward they often aren’t believed. Their characters are ripped apart; their motives are questioned; they’re told they were probably ‘asking for it.’ And so other women decide they may as well just keep quiet. If we are to learn anything from Trump’s masterclass in rape culture it’s that none of us should keep quiet.

Donald Trump’s ‘Locker Room Talk’ Was the Last Straw for Young Republican and First Time Voters

Donald Trump’s ‘Locker Room Talk’ Was the Last Straw for Young Republican and First Time Voters by Katie Reilly ( Republished with permission of the Author and Time Magazine in which the article first appeared) 

As many have pointed out Donald Trump was not in the Locker Room when those comments were made but at work and Billy Bush was not the only other occupant on the 60 seated bus. The developments of this week have made for a collision between the presidential election and campus conversations about rape culture

The bombshell dropped on the Washington Post’s website just after 4 p.m.: a video of Donald Trump, in 2005, using extremely vulgar language to describe women, detailing his attempt to bed a married woman and bragging that he can grope women because he is Donald Trump, a Reality Star .

When Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. appeared on television this week to say Donald Trump deserves forgiveness for boasting about groping women, what students at the Christian university heard was ambivalence to “an atrocity which plagues college campuses across America.” And when advocates listened to Trump’s dismissal of his lewd comments as “locker room talk,” they recognized a familiar and “deeply concerning” pattern of denial that perpetuates what has become known as rape culture.

Waves of campus protest over sexual assault in recent years have made millennials more aware of the problem, and those young voters, with whom Trump was already struggling, have been among his most vocal detractors over the last week week.A recent Quinnipiac University poll found Trump trailing among likely voters aged 18-34, 48% to 27%. That was before multiple women this week accused Trump of kissing or touching them inappropriately without their consent. Trump denied the accusations as “totally and absolutely false” on Thursday.

Taken together, the developments have made for a collision between the presidential election and the conversations percolating on college campuses across the country.

“Any faculty or staff member at Liberty would be terminated for such comments, and yet when Donald Trump makes them, President Falwell rushes eagerly to his defense—taking the name ‘Liberty University’ with him,” a group of Liberty students said in a statement on Wednesday, denouncing Trump and his association with their school. “‘We’re all sinners,’ Falwell told the media, as if sexual assault is a shoulder-shrugging issue rather than an atrocity which plagues college campuses across America, including our own.”

Sofie Karasek, co-founder of the advocacy group End Rape on Campus, said attempts to discredit or intimidate accusers speak to the “culture of fear” surrounding assault. But she said she’s heartened by the cultural shift, especially among young people, toward taking survivors seriously.

“We have really had a quite a number of moments over the past couple of years where we’ve had a conversation about sexual violence that the country really hasn’t seen before,” she said in an interview, referring to high-profile campus activism. “People have started to pay attention to this issue in ways that they haven’t before.”

A 2014 White House report estimated that one out of every five women is sexually assaulted in college, and hundreds of schools are now under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education for their handling of sexual assault cases. In response, many schools have adopted new policies that require affirmative consent. In 2014, California became the first state to institute a legal requirement for affirmative consent, commonly known as “yes means yes.” New York state followed suit.

Dustin Wahl, executive director of the Liberty University group, Liberty United Against Trump, said Trump’s lewd comments pushed him to finally speak out.

“Honestly it was some of these sexual assault remarks that Trump made recently that made us get together and say, ‘Hey, we need to do something as a group that says we, as a university, don’t want to be associated with Donald Trump,'” Wahl, 21, told TIME. “Tying yourself to a man who promotes and laughs about sexual assault and creepy, awful things like that doesn’t exactly do well to advance the mission of making the teachings of Jesus Christ the center of your life.”

For other young Republicans, Trump’s comments about being able to “do anything” to women proved too much to forgive.

“The Party of Lincoln is not a locker room, and there is no place for people who think it is. Definitely not with her, but not with him,” Alex Smith, the national chairman of the College Republicans, tweeted on Saturday, as other GOP leaders condemned Trump in droves.

During Sunday’s debate against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, Trump again dismissed his comments as “locker room talk.” Afterward, a student at Washington University in St. Louis, which hosted the debate, confronted Trump surrogate Omarosa Manigault and accused her of “minimizing” the issue. “There are legitimate attacks against Clinton, but they don’t rise to the level of perpetuating rape culture,” the student told Bloomberg.

The Trump campaign has recently sought to limit the damage with female voters by elevating the claims of women who say they were sexually assaulted by former President Bill Clinton. “With rape culture being what it is, these facts are going to shock millennial women,” Trump deputy campaign manager David Bossie told Bloomberg Businessweek. “There will not be a millennial woman who will want to vote for her when these facts come out.”

But while Trump has hailed Bill Clinton’s accusers as “very courageous women,” the Republican nominee has attacked the credibility of the women now accusing him of assault.

Wahl said he thinks the presidency requires “higher standards.”

“I know that misogyny used to be accepted many years ago—more than it is today,” said Wahl, a registered Republican who supported Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the primary. “We, as a generation, are saying we’re done with that. It’s not acceptable.”

Donald Trump Abusive, Dehumanizing, Coercive Towering Tramp: Trump Recorded Having Extremely Lewd Conversation About Women and not the 1st, 3rd or even 10th time ( Republished with permission of The Atlantic and Washington Post )

Republished with permission of The Atlantic  and the Washington Post

In a video from 2005, Donald Trump prepares for an appearance on "Days of Our Lives" with actress Arianne Zucker. He is accompanied to the set by "Access Hollywood" host Billy Bush. Here is the Transcript of the video obtained by the Washington Post 

“This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course — not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended.”

— Donald Trump, apologizing(?) for leaked footage of him talking to Billy Bush in 2005, saying that, among other things, “when you’re a star they let you do it,” Trump says. “You can do anything… Grab them by the p—y,” Trump says. “You can do anything.”

Ah, yes, just locker room banter. As far as I can tell, the conversations in men’s locker rooms all must go something like this.

First man: Phew! Thank goodness. It was exhausting to have to walk through the world talking to all those women as though they were just people, like us. Clearly, they are not. They are women. Their bodies exist for us to look at and do sex to.

Second Man: I do sex constantly! I obtained a great deal of sex today from the many walking sex dispensers that are to be found drifting through the world! I must obtain as much as possible from the best-looking dispensers so that I can win respect from fellow men like you!

First Man: Ha, ha, champ!

Second Man: Give me a promotion!

First Man: I will, if you will promise not to take paternity leave!

Second Man: I promise! Boy, I am exhausted! I saw a woman at work today in clothes, and I thought about sex. I wish that she had worn different clothes so that this would not happen. Sex is my right as a human being, and I do not understand why it would be withheld ever, under any circumstances.

First Man: I am a true lady killer.

Third Man: That is a violent term.

Second Man: I bet you slay a lot of women.

First Man: (winking) At least 30. (winking more) I left their remains along the highway. (winking more) Their families will not find them.

Third Man: This is kind of violent, and I am not sure it is just a double entendre any more.

Second Man: Trevor, please. What are you, a GIRL? This is more of that political correctness that is ruining everything.

(Third Man leaves)

First Man: Thank you for saying something. We need to preserve places like this. Every time women come into male spaces, they are ruined.


Second Man: I agree. It is too bad that my exes are crazy.

First Man: All of them?

Second Man: Yes, 100 percent. It is amazing how every woman I date turns out to have severe mental problems the moment she ceases to date me.

First Man: Those bitches.


It must be nice to have a magical room where you can go, drop your pants and pretend for a few glorious hours that women are not people.

Trump's Words Are Not 'Explicit Sex Talk'.Concern isn’t about being "lewd" or "graphic," but about being misogynistic, coercive, abusive, and dehumanizing.


The Republican presidential nominee has been caught on tape referring to grabbing women, positing that “you can do anything” when you’re “a star.”

Some news outlets reported this as a problem of sexually descriptive words, such as “Donald Trump’s Graphic Sex Talk Audio Leaked” and “Stars React After Graphic Donald Trump and Billy Bush Convo Leaks.” Even The Washington Post—which broke the story—used the headline “Trump Recorded Having Extremely Lewd Conversation About Women in 2005.”

The thing about the Republican’s words isn't that they’re explicit or graphic. It's that they're misogynistic, coercive, abusive, and dehumanizing. And as my colleague David Graham notes, illegal: The candidate is describing forcing himself on women, bragging that they’re disinclined to object because of a power structure on which he knowingly capitalizes.

Framing this as lewd, even extremely so, is a reminder of the frequent reluctance to name sexual assault. Explicit conversations are a different thing, a part of life central to mature sexuality. If Trump, Clinton, or any other candidate or humanhadn’t had explicit, graphic, lewd conversations, that would be concerning. Trump’s comments are something else.Counteract this confusion by talking about sex more openly, not less.

By comparison, there would be no issue with a recording in which Trump talked about his “veiny member” and how he enjoys “thrusting to and fro until climax.” (Sorry, just making the point.) At this point I’d welcome a leaked tape in which he recounted the best sex he ever had, on a giant yacht. How it was so fantastic, and how many orgasms everyone had, and how no one cried, and he felt like God was moving through him, but it was just semen, huge amounts of amazing semen. How he sometimes weeps when he thinks about women masturbating, because human bodies instill in him a profound sense of awe. And awe isn’t easy to come by these days, let me tell you.

Explicit conversation is a bonding ritual that’s not bad or shameful. Treating it as such makes people misunderstand what explicit conversation is supposed to be—as Trump claimed when he excused his comments as “locker room banter.” To take him at his word, he misunderstands the ritual: Talking explicitly about sex is different from bragging about forcing yourself on people.

Any notion to the contrary is a product of not talking about sex frankly, openly, often enough. And then when you do, feeling like you have to brag about grabbing women “by the pussy” on a bus with Billy Bush, so you end up perpetuating archaic notions of power and forcible objectification. Because that’s what you heard someone else do. That’s what the boys at the New York Military Academy did during Trump’s formative years.

Like Trump, ever more Americans seem to feel that masculinity (as they understand it, narrowly defined) is threatened. It’s threatened specifically by “PC culture,” often used as a sweeping indictment of any attempt at decency. My colleague Molly Ball spoke to some of these men recently at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, men with chin-strap beards and novelty t-shirts calling Hillary Clinton a bitch because “it’s funny.”

Confusing humor and cruelty is born of profound ignorance, and an idea that violating codes is inherently funny. Counteract this confusion by talking about sex more openly, not less. Show that decency need not be puritanical. Chastise coercion but embrace consensual boning down. (And avoid saying “boning down” until you’ve got a good read on the room.) Because in their ignorance, toxic men are malleable. Their notions of masculinity will change with the culture that shapes them. This starts with the words that, seemingly small, frame these discussions about sex and power, respect and abuse, what’s lewd and what’s baldly inhumane.

Donald Trump Abusive, Dehumanizing, Coercive Towering Tramp: Trump Recorded Having Extremely Lewd Conversation About Women and not the 1st, 3rd or even 10th time ( Republished with permission of The Atlantic)

Republished with permission of The Atlantic  ( unedited)

Trump's Words Are Not 'Explicit Sex Talk'.Concern isn’t about being "lewd" or "graphic," but about being misogynistic, coercive, abusive, and dehumanizing.



The Republican presidential nominee has been caught on tape referring to grabbing women, positing that “you can do anything” when you’re “a star.”

Some news outlets reported this as a problem of sexually descriptive words, such as “Donald Trump’s Graphic Sex Talk Audio Leaked” and “Stars React After Graphic Donald Trump and Billy Bush Convo Leaks.” Even The Washington Post—which broke the story—used the headline “Trump Recorded Having Extremely Lewd Conversation About Women in 2005.”

The thing about the Republican’s words isn't that they’re explicit or graphic. It's that they're misogynistic, coercive, abusive, and dehumanizing. And as my colleague David Graham notes, illegal: The candidate is describing forcing himself on women, bragging that they’re disinclined to object because of a power structure on which he knowingly capitalizes.

Framing this as lewd, even extremely so, is a reminder of the frequent reluctance to name sexual assault. Explicit conversations are a different thing, a part of life central to mature sexuality. If Trump, Clinton, or any other candidate or humanhadn’t had explicit, graphic, lewd conversations, that would be concerning. Trump’s comments are something else.Counteract this confusion by talking about sex more openly, not less.

By comparison, there would be no issue with a recording in which Trump talked about his “veiny member” and how he enjoys “thrusting to and fro until climax.” (Sorry, just making the point.) At this point I’d welcome a leaked tape in which he recounted the best sex he ever had, on a giant yacht. How it was so fantastic, and how many orgasms everyone had, and how no one cried, and he felt like God was moving through him, but it was just semen, huge amounts of amazing semen. How he sometimes weeps when he thinks about women masturbating, because human bodies instill in him a profound sense of awe. And awe isn’t easy to come by these days, let me tell you.

Explicit conversation is a bonding ritual that’s not bad or shameful. Treating it as such makes people misunderstand what explicit conversation is supposed to be—as Trump claimed when he excused his comments as “locker room banter.” To take him at his word, he misunderstands the ritual: Talking explicitly about sex is different from bragging about forcing yourself on people.

Any notion to the contrary is a product of not talking about sex frankly, openly, often enough. And then when you do, feeling like you have to brag about grabbing women “by the pussy” on a bus with Billy Bush, so you end up perpetuating archaic notions of power and forcible objectification. Because that’s what you heard someone else do. That’s what the boys at the New York Military Academy did during Trump’s formative years.

Like Trump, ever more Americans seem to feel that masculinity (as they understand it, narrowly defined) is threatened. It’s threatened specifically by “PC culture,” often used as a sweeping indictment of any attempt at decency. My colleague Molly Ball spoke to some of these men recently at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, men with chin-strap beards and novelty t-shirts calling Hillary Clinton a bitch because “it’s funny.”

Confusing humor and cruelty is born of profound ignorance, and an idea that violating codes is inherently funny. Counteract this confusion by talking about sex more openly, not less. Show that decency need not be puritanical. Chastise coercion but embrace consensual boning down. (And avoid saying “boning down” until you’ve got a good read on the room.) Because in their ignorance, toxic men are malleable. Their notions of masculinity will change with the culture that shapes them. This starts with the words that, seemingly small, frame these discussions about sex and power, respect and abuse, what’s lewd and what’s baldly inhumane.

Donald Trump’s Long Pattern of Attacking Women’s Sex Lives by Charlotte Alter (Republished with permission of the Author and Time Magazine in which this article first appeared)

Donald Trump’s Long Pattern of Attacking Women’s Sex Lives by Charlotte Alter (Republished with permission of the Author and Time Magazine in which this article first appeared)

Donald Trumps 'Long Pattern of Attaching Womens Sex Lives  Click omn this hyperlink to see the video report

Donald Trump Urges Followers To Check Out Alicia Machado’s ‘Sex Tape’
On a Twitter tirade early this morning Trump urges his followers to check out a “sex tape” of the beauty queen he forced to work out in front of reporters after having gained weight during her reign.
Share

Donald Trump tends to get personal when he’s striking back at someone who has criticized him. But when his critics are women, those terms often include broad smears of their sexual behavior.

In Trump’s battery of insults, there are two kinds of women: those who have too much sex, and those who don’t have enough.

Former Miss Universe Alicia Machado and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton have inhabited either edge of this Trump spectrum. In a series of early-morning tweets Friday morning, Trump called former Miss Universe and new Clinton campaign asset Alicia Machado “disgusting” and urged his followers to look up her “sex tape.”

 Follow

Donald J. Trump 

✔@realDonaldTrump

Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?

12:30 PM - 30 Sep 2016

 
•  13,48513,485 Retweets
 
•  31,11131,111 likes

Early last year, Trump retweeted an apparent joke that compared Hillary Clinton’s ability to serve as President to her ability to sexually please her husband: “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America?” He later deleted the tweet.

In both cases, Trump targeted his opponents according to the classic double-bind of expectations for adult women: They can be called a slut for having sex, or pathetic and frigid if they don’t. Add to that another old sexist trope: If a man cheats on you, it’s your fault.

For the record, no evidence has yet surfaced of Machado ever making a sex tape. Trump might be referring to a slightly racy video from her 2005 appearance on a Spanish reality show, in which grainy bedroom footage appears to show her under the covers (yet clothed) with a male co-star, the kind of “sex scene” that is routinely staged for reality TV shows.

Trump has long judged himself by a different standard, frequently boasting, sometimes in unusual detail, of his sexual accomplishments and tastes, both as a bachelor and during his three marriages. Asked Thursday night about his marital history, which includes an affair with the woman who became his second wife while he was still married to his first, Trump said there was nothing to criticize. “I have a very good history,” he told NH1 news in New Hampshire.

In a 1999 radio interview with Howard Stern, Trump spoke about his own sex life and put a “naked” Melania on the phone to tell Stern what she was wearing and how often they have sex. Stern asked him to “have sex with her while we’re on the phone” and Trump laughed, suggesting that if he took him up on the offer, Stern would “watch his ratings go even higher.”

Years later, in the midst of his 2015 feud with Megyn Kelly, Trump slammed the Fox News host for discussing her sex life with her husband on the very same Howard Stern show, even suggesting that it was impure of her to be open about her private activities.

 Follow

Donald J. Trump 

✔@realDonaldTrump

Oh really, check out innocent @megynkelly discussion on@HowardStern show 5 years ago--I am the innocent (pure) one!http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/megyn-kelly-howard-stern-sex-talk-donald-trump/2015/08/09/id/669255/ …

4:23 PM - 10 Aug 2015

 
•  2,0542,054 Retweets
 
•  3,8873,887 likes

He’s also smeared other high-profile women for their alleged sex lives, from Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski (calling her Joe Scarborough’s “very insecure longtime girlfriend”) to Angelina Jolie (whom he said has “been with so many guys she makes me look like a baby.”)

But if you’re a woman in Trump’s world, you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Trump has repeatedly attacked Rosie O’Donnell for what he claims, without evidence, are sexual failings. “She better be careful or I’ll send one of my friends over to pick up her girlfriend,” he said once. “Why would she stay with Rosie if she had another choice?” He also attacked another powerful woman, media mogul Arianna Huffington, for the failure of her marriage.

Donald J. Trump 

✔@realDonaldTrump

.@ariannahuff is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man- he made a good decision.

5:54 PM - 28 Aug 2012

 
•  6,0516,051 Retweets
 
•  5,0305,030 likes

In recent weeks, Trump’s close allies, some of them adulterers themselves, have begun to pummel Clinton for her husband’s sexual infidelities while praising Trump for refusing to attack her himself.

“The president of the United States, her husband, disgraced this country with what he did in the Oval Office, and she didn’t just stand by him, she attacked Monica Lewinsky,” said Rudy Guiliani, former Mayor of New York City, who has admitted to cheating on his second wife. “And after being married to Bill Clinton for 20 years, if you didn’t know the moment Monica Lewinsky said that Bill Clinton violated her that she was telling the truth, then you’re too stupid to be president.”

So Trump’s treatment of Machado and Clinton are not isolated spats or just the tweets-du-jour. Taken together, they’re perfect examples of the way Trump has come to target women antagonists by attempting to shame their most private behavior.

The Clinton campaign is clearly betting that Trump’s attacks will hurt him with women voters, an all-important demographic that often decides elections. She highlighted Trump’s late night Machado tweet hours later Friday morning.

“What kind of man stays up all night to smear a woman with lies and conspiracy theories?” asked the campaign’s official Twitter account. And in the debate on Monday, she made clear that she hopes women are motivated on Election Day by such statements.

After she brought up Trump’s past criticism of Machado in the debate, she turned to Trump and said, “you can bet she’s gonna vote.”

Another 3am Donald Trump Twitter Melt Down . Donny T Slut Slams Sexist , Misogynist and Racist comments about ex Miss Universe Alicia Machado..... but hey lets not straight jacket him until 9th November... let the temperate non Presidential meltdowns continue

The candidate’s use of social media is a double-edged sword for his campaign.


One of the most reliable things about the current election campaign is that on any given day, Republican candidate Donald Trump is almost certain to say something on Twitter that will set off alarm bells or cause some kind of controversy. And Friday morning was no exception to that rule.

Despite the fact that Trump was widely viewed as having lost the recent debate with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, and that the election itself is just over a month away, the candidate chose to tweet not about the political issues in the campaign but about his dislike of former Miss Universe contestant Alicia Machado.


Machado came up during the debate because Clinton referred to her and to Trump’s attacks on her weight gain during the competition. It was just one example Clinton used of his demeaning attitude towards women, and it was almost a parenthetical reference. But Trump seemed to be unable to let it go.

After the debate, he talked at length on Fox Newsabout how Machado allegedly gained 60 pounds, and how he tried to support her after the pageant wanted to fire her.

Then early Friday morning, Trump chose for some unknown reason to unleash a series of tweets about her allegedly unsavory past, combined with a conspiracy theory about her relationship with Clinton. He called Machado “my worst Miss Universe,” and said Clinton was duped into referring to her in the debate.

 Follow

Donald J. Trump 

✔@realDonaldTrump

Wow, Crooked Hillary was duped and used by my worst Miss U. Hillary floated her as an "angel" without checking her past, which is terrible!

12:14 PM - 30 Sep 2016

 
•  7,6437,643 Retweets
 
•  19,86119,861 likes

The Republican candidate said that this showed that “Crooked Hillary” suffers from bad judgment. And he suggested that Clinton helped Machado—whom he called “disgusting”—to become a U.S. citizen so that she could use her in the debate. He also advised his followers to “check out” Machado’s sex tape.

 Follow

Donald J. Trump 

✔@realDonaldTrump

Using Alicia M in the debate as a paragon of virtue just shows that Crooked Hillary suffers from BAD JUDGEMENT! Hillary was set up by a con.

12:19 PM - 30 Sep 2016

 
•  7,8117,811 Retweets
 
•  19,62619,626 likes

 Follow

Donald J. Trump 

✔@realDonaldTrump

Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?

12:30 PM - 30 Sep 2016

 
•  9,1249,124 Retweets
 
•  20,93420,934 likes

One of the hallmarks of Trump’s candidacy has been his use of social media, particularly Twitter  TWTR 0.35% , something that has arguably helped drive interest in his campaign and garnered a ton of free publicity. The former reality TV show host uses the medium like few other politicians do, and it has paid off for him.

 Follow

Kevin M. Kruse 

✔@KevinMKruse

A month away from the election, the Republican presidential nominee stayed up all night tweeting about an alleged Miss Universe sex tape.

2:39 PM - 30 Sep 2016

 
•  178178 Retweets
 
•  215215 likes

That openness has also been a double-edged sword, however, because it has allowed him to speak his mind freely, even when every political campaign manager in the world would probably advise him not to. Will that behavior endear him to his fans, or cause more people to see him as emotionally and psychologically unfit for office?