Donald Trump is a hater of many things: losing, the law, political enemies. Trump comes unglued over so many things, it’s sometimes easy to forget just how much he despises women—especially women who dare to challenge him.
Enter former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who has not obeyed Trump's post-Iowa orders to exit the race and "unite" as a party around him. How dare she not submit to his wishes, especially following his victory in New Hampshire. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis folded like a cheap suit. How dare she insist on staying in the race through South Carolina, the next big prize on the GOP primary map and Haley’s home state.
Trump's angry victory speech following his win in the Granite State was just the beginning of his vitriol. His favorite pet name for Haley is Birdbrain. He's gone full birther on her, questioning her eligibility to be president. He's also played the race card, referring to Haley by her given name, Nimarata, while misspelling it as "Nimrada"—just to make certain his followers know she has Indian heritage (i.e., she isn’t white).
Trump also can't seem to distinguish between the many women he despises, like they've all melded together in his thick brain. He recently confused Haley for former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi when discussing the Jan. 6 insurrection. He accused the woman he sexually assaulted, E. Jean Carrol, of “running for office” … or was he talking about Haley? And earlier this month, Trump tweeted out a photoshopped image of Haley with Hillary Clinton superimposed on it.
Because who can tell the difference anyway? It's a woman who isn't bowing down. Blech!
For her part, Haley seems to be blossoming under the warm glow of Trump's rage. The Biden campaign couldn't be more pleased to have a sane Republican surrogate continuing to bring out the worst in Trump, her anti-women policies aside.
Most recently, the Biden-Harris rapid response account tweeted out footage of Haley telling CNBC's “Squawk Box” that voters "don't want the chaos anymore."
"Just think in the last 24 hours what he did," Haley said, "he has a temper tantrum and talks about revenge. Then the next day he goes and says, ‘Anybody that supports her is not going to be part of my MAGA group.’"
The longer Haley stays in the race, the more her presence reminds women voters of Trump's total contempt for them.
It's a throwback to Trump's 2016 "grab ‘em by the pussy" Access Hollywood tape, his assertion that then-Fox News host Megyn Kelly had "blood coming out of her wherever" following a tough interview, and his creepy stalking of Hillary Clinton during a presidential debate.
Trump has made the Republican Party less welcoming to women than when he began his takeover of it, and when Trump is on the ballot, that alienation has translated to a double-digit deficit for Republicans among female voters.
Here's how women voted in the last several elections:
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2016: Clinton 54%, Trump 39%, D+15
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2018: Democrats 58%, Republicans 40%, D+18
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2020: Biden 55%, Trump 44%, D+11
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2022: Democrats 51%, Republicans 48%, D+3
The 2022 midterms stand in stark contrast to the previous cycles partly due to the fact that Trump wasn't directly on the ballot and partly because Democrats controlled the White House, making the ‘22 midterm a referendum on Democratic control of Washington.
But for obvious reasons, Team Biden and Democrats want women to remember the anti-Trump rage that drove them to the polls in the 2016, 2018, and 2020. And every minute that Trump rails against Haley is another minute spent enraging women voters, exercising that muscle memory, ahead of November.
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