On Monday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” co-host Steve Inskeep wondered if President-Elect Donald Trump got along with female figures during his first term better than male figures in the administration because “if you’re a guy trying to be a strong, manly man, does a man just automatically seem like more of a threat to you?”
New York Times Congressional Correspondent Annie Karni said that “the top-line reason” that female figures in the Trump administration like Ivanka Trump, Hope Hicks, Kellyanne Conway, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders weren’t fired while a lot of male figures were fired or quit “is that Trump didn’t see them as direct competition in the same way he might have seen — not like in the caricature of Steve Bannon pulling the strings from behind the scenes and him just being Steve Bannon’s puppet. That was never how any of these women positioned themselves when they worked in the White House. And that kind of level of direct competition is not something that serves someone well working for Trump.”
Inskeep then said, “I don’t want to psychoanalyze here too much, but, if you’re a guy trying to be a strong, manly man, does a man just automatically seem like more of a threat to you?”
Karni responded, “Possibly, yes. And these women who survived there kind of play along with him. There’s no evidence that they challenged him or wanted to be seen as kind of the main player. They were oftentimes obsequious to him. Like, I remember at the inaugural ball, when he called out Kellyanne Conway, she smiled and curtsied. Ivanka famously laughed along when Trump, back in the day, said, if she wasn’t his daughter, he’d want to date her. They are willing to play the role that he wants them to be in, and that allows them to survive and actually have great power in his circle. He’s also someone who, like, way back to his real estate days, has actually considered himself a professional promoter of women.” And pointed to his promotion of Barbara Res.
Inskeep then asked, “Should this then complicate the idea of Trump and women that is discussed, among Democrats, of course?”
Karni answered, “Well, the women who are loyal to Trump absolutely think so. They like to point to their own experiences with him…that’s fine, but it doesn’t mean that he’s not — hasn’t been found liable for sexual abuse. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t regularly make sexist attacks. It doesn’t mean that his policies are good for women. Like, they lean on just their personal experiences to defend him, which is a very weak argument for defending someone’s record on women. And the bottom line is that both things can be true. He can be liable for sexual abuse and have treated a few women in his circle with respect.”
Later, Karni added, “There is no place for women in his circle if they go against him. That might be true for men and women alike.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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