Donald Trump Still Can’t Stand Women

No matter where on the political spectrum you fall, it would have been hard to watch the 2024 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris and not come away with the impression that Trump still doesn’t respect women. He might not even like them.

For nearly two hours, Donald Trump hurled insults at his opponent. He called her decisions “horrible” numerous times throughout the debate. He mocked her race (“All I can say is I read where she was not Black, that she put out… And then I read that she was Black.”) He displayed delight when he claimed that world leaders hate the vice president: who can forget the schoolyard-like moment he taunted her, inviting viewers into “a little secret?” Before claiming—as if the vice president should care—that the far right prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, “hates her. He can’t stand her.”

He refused to look Harris in the eye. At the start of the debate, he appeared to not even want to shake her hand until the vice president strode over and offered hers.

Throughout the debate, he didn’t turn toward her when speaking; sometimes it was unclear if he was even listening. Instead, he remained still, facing directly toward the viewers. Perhaps it was deliberate—to ensure that he filled the screen at all times, to be perceived as “presidential,” to telegraph that his opponent wasn’t worth speaking to.

But his behavior was a striking contrast to Harris’ body language. When Trump spoke, she looked towards him, she made notes on his words, she cocked her head, her facial expressions often betrayed her feelings. When she addressed his comments, she often responded to him, to his face, her body turned towards him. He rarely acknowledged her physical presence.

He did however have to let her speak, for up to two minutes per question, per the debate rules (unlike in 2016 when he interrupted Hillary Clinton 51 times).

But that same courtesy was not extended to the one other woman on screen, ABC news anchor and debate moderator Linsey Davis.

Debate co-moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis

ABC News

During the debate, Trump interrupted almost every question Davis posed to him. Sometimes she only got out “President Trump—” before he proceeded to speak over her. While her co-anchor David Muir often asked sprawling questions—with Trump often responding directly to him, using his first name regularly in his replies—and racked up nearly 2,000 words spoken, Davis (who Trump never addressed by name) managed just 818. I know because I counted them. And most of Davis’ words came from her direct questions to Vice President Harris.

It might seem petty to get this granular, but, as women, paying attention to who gives voice to us matters.

In this debate, Trump had no choice but to let Harris speak. He chose not to let Davis.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what made him so averse. But certainly Davis’s questions on his abortion stance—right at the top of the debate—put him on the defensive, and marked the beginning and end of her ability to interact with him. And perhaps Davis hit the nail on the head in a broader sense when she asked him “Why should [women] trust you?” over his constant course changing on reproductive rights, as well as his opposition to abortion. It’s notable that he never actually answered the question, instead praising the “genius and heart and strength” of the six Supreme Court judges who overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

From that point on Davis only managed one further question to the former president without being cut off by him. The only ones she was able to ask in full were those posed to Harris. Muir was mostly never interrupted by Trump.

Again, here, it’s worth noting statistically how much men in general dominated the debate. In part due to the number of times Davis was interrupted by Trump, she spoke just 35 times compared to Muir’s 74. But it wasn’t just the moderators. Despite Harris being given her full two minutes to land her point each time, as well as rebuttals, she only spoke 34 times to Trump’s 74. It might have seemed hard to follow during a back and forth debate, but I’d put money on me not being the only woman to pick up just how many times Trump refused to let Harris have the last word. Even when it was clearly her turn to wrap up a topic. And how hard it was, ultimately, for both moderators to rein the former president in.

In the end, even after a debate in which Trump dominated by the sheer volume of words, political experts largely handed the debate victory to Harris. She spoke confidently, clearly, and made a case for the future. “Let’s turn the page” she argued more than once about Trump and his divisive politics, and outlined her vision for an “opportunity economy.” Trump, when pressed on the details rather than insults, especially in relation to healthcare, answered with the astonishingly vague “I have concepts of a plan,” and shrugged it off with “I’m not president right now.”

Harris was particularly searing when it came to reproductive rights—the topic that seemed to throw Trump at the start—and likely landed one of the great blows of the night when she spoke about the impact of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. She said:

“Now in over 20 states there are Trump abortion bans which make it criminal for a doctor or nurse to provide health care. In one state it provides prison for life. Trump abortion bans that make no exception even for rape and incest. Which, understand what that means. A survivor of a crime, a violation to their body, does not have the right to make a decision about what happens to their body next. That is immoral. And one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government, and Donald Trump certainly, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body.”

According to a Harris–Walz campaign official, this moment saw the biggest support from the undecided voter dial groups. They also shared that in the first hour of the debate, during which abortion featured heavily, over 70% of grassroots donors to the campaign were women.

These women saw. And they understood.

While this election won’t come down just to female voters, women play a critical role in deciding the outcome of every presidential election. And if Tuesday night’s debate ends up a deciding factor, Donald Trump may well live to regret his disdain for this powerful voting bloc.