Donald Trump has a well-documented difficulty dealing with female reporters who challenge him, which is why he’s reportedly shortening his press briefings to avoid fighting with them. But it’s not really working as we have recently witnessed.
During his disastrous press briefing at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey attended by several members, Trump ended up getting called out by CBS News reporter Paula Reid for wrongly taking credit for a Veteran’s Choice healthcare program that former President Barack Obama signed in 2014.
A visibly irritated Trump then quickly ended the briefing and stalked off without answering her question.
Such has been the case when other female reporters such as CNN’s Kaitlan Collins or PBS reporter Yamiche Alcindor pepper Trump with tough questions.
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He becomes flustered and usually attacks them viciously before running away.
At a time when Americans are begging journalists to get tougher on Trump, women are taking the lead, and Trump cannot handle it. It’s certainly not doing anything to help his re-election chances, especially among women.
Suburban women are turning against Trump and the Republican Party in droves, depriving them of a key voting group under 100 days until Election Day in November.
So, Trump thinks he can stop the bleeding by keeping his briefings short so as to avoid picking fights with female reporters.
“As my colleagues Nancy Cook and Gabby Orr reported this summer, his aides have urged him to avoid the marathon sessions of his earlier coronavirus briefings, “straying off message and generating negative headlines,” Jack Schafer wrote for Politico.
Trump is “playing it safe by keeping it short,” Schafer continued. “Another way to view his dust-ups with female reporters is as an act of conflict avoidance. With his support among suburban women dropping in the polls, the Trump camp thinks that dodging unnecessary clashes with women in the briefing room might help win additional votes in November. Essentially, don’t make a bad situation worse.”
That’s why he has been tucking his tail between his legs and running away when challenged, as was the case with Reid.
“He makes a show of maintaining his dominance by beating his breast, but when challenged by somebody superior, he takes his beating then slinks off to a dark, safe place to lick his wounds,” Shafer noted. “Male reporters who contest his views make him mad. But female reporters who do the same make him melt down.”
And those meltdowns have hurt Trump in the polls. If Trump snaps at the female reporters he draws the ire of angry women. If he runs away from them he insults women and demonstrates himself as weak.
None of those realities will help Trump. But he only has himself to blame for carrying his sexist attitudes and beliefs into every press briefing and for lying his a** off about anything and everything. He makes himself an easy target, and it will only get worse for him as the 2020 Election intensifies.
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
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