“What’s worse than a socialist president, according to President Donald Trump? A female one. The president didn’t hide his feelings about the idea of a woman in the executive office during a Florida campaign rally Friday afternoon. “We’re not supposed to have a socialist — look, we’re not going to be a socialist nation. We’re not going to have a socialist president, especially a female socialist president,” he said, referring to his opponent Joe Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who will be a heartbeat away from the presidency if Biden wins. Neither of them is generally considered to be socialist. “We’re not going to have it. We’re not going to put up with it,” Trump concluded. It was a shocking moment even for Trump, who, despite his long history of sexist attacks against women, typically maintains that he is very popular among female voters and has “done more for WOMEN than just about any President in HISTORY!” His suggestion that a female socialist would be worse than a male socialist is especially jarring given his very vocal effort to secure the votes of white suburban women, who have been flocking to the Biden camp this election cycle. But it certainly resonates with some Republicans. According to a YouGov poll in January 2019, just 31% of Republican voters were “entirely comfortable” with the idea of a female president, as opposed to 72% of Democrats. Trump reiterated his pleas to female suburban voters at his rally Friday. “Please, please, suburban women. You should love me. I ended the regulation that’s going to destroy the suburb.” Biden still leads Trump among women by double digits.
