Conservative Moms, charmed by Trump, would rather avoid his misogyny

WASHINGTON — It didn’t look like a typical Trump rally.

There were trays of mini-cupcakes and macarons. There were squadrons of helicopter moms buzzed off white wine. The excited women were wandering around the basement of a Marriott in downtown Washington, waiting for former President Donald Trump to show.

It was the Joyful Warriors summit thrown by a bunch of agitated parents known as the Moms for Liberty, a conservative activist group that was founded during the COVID pandemic. The group, which has more than 130,000 members across the country, has become quite influential in Republican politics.

Their parental preoccupations were made apparent by the programming and pamphleteering on display. There were panels called “What Does It Mean to Abolish the Department of Education?” and “Moms Know Best: Protecting Kids from Secret Gender Transitions in Schools.” There was literature on child sex trafficking and on the damage wrought by COVID-era school closures, and there were copies of a book titled “Take Two Aspirin and Call Me By My Pronouns: Why Turning Doctors Into Social Justice Warriors Is Destroying American Medicine.”

The Moms For Liberty can get a bit carried away — one of their local chapters once accidentally quoted Adolf Hitler (“He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future”) and then issued an apology disavowing the Führer (“We should not have quoted him in our newsletter”) — but still, their summit Friday made for a good case study. It was packed with the sort of voters Trump hopes can help him win in November: fired-up suburban women.

“These are women that have largely never been political,” said Tiffany Justice, the group’s co-founder. “They’re people who, in the busiest time of their lives, realized that they needed to get involved in politics.”

It was an interesting time for Trump to address a women’s group, given that lately he has been attacking Vice President Kamala Harris in ever more misogynistic ways. He has implied that Harris’ former romantic relationship with Willie Brown, a former San Francisco mayor, fueled her political success. On Wednesday, he shared a screenshot on Truth Social showing an image of Harris and Hillary Clinton, appended with commentary from another user, with a reference to oral sex.

Asked what she thought about Trump posting this, Justice stammered, “You know what, I think that, uh, a lot of people say a lot of things. And we’re focused on the issues that are hurting American voters.”

But some of the Moms for Liberty acknowledged they would prefer a little less crude talk from the man they hope will lead the nation once more.

“That was really tacky,” said Eva Maria Scott, a financial adviser (and mother of four) from Fredericksburg, Virginia. “He needs to get off the tweets. That’s very disrespectful.”

Paula Steiner, the former president of the Virginia Federation of Republican Women, looked deeply uncomfortable when asked what she made of Trump’s post. She said that she did not “really want to talk about that” and that it’s “not an important issue for me.”

His campaign stop Friday was a reminder that Trump often gets away with doing and saying things that would spell certain death for any other politician. He can denigrate veterans and then be celebrated by the military. He can brag about sexual assault, boast about walking in on Miss Universe contestants en déshabillé, be found liable for sexual abuse by a jury of six men and three women and still be celebrated as a protector and respecter of women and children by school board mothers concerned about a society they feel has become overly sexualized.

“I don’t care what he says; it’s just about actions,” said Panina Mintz, a microbiologist from Galloway, New Jersey, who said she was a Democrat until the pandemic; she felt that the Democrats and government bureaucrats were too draconian in their lockdown measures. “As a voter, if you’re relying on tweets, that’s your problem. It’s not mine.”

After Trump arrived, he was interviewed onstage by Justice while some 600 Mothers for Liberty listened attentively. They were soon reminded why it is that they tolerate so much of his misogyny. “Who would want men playing in women’s sports?” he asked as the women booed.

There is a reason Trump mentions the issue of transgender athletes at pretty much every rally he speaks at; it is a powerful, motivating one for many parents, and he knows it. He understood that this was what the Moms for Liberty wanted to hear him riff about probably more than anything, and so he did.

He told them that, unlike his opponents, he was not going to be politically correct.

“Everyone’s afraid to talk about it,” said Trump.

“Not me,” piped up Justice.

“Not Tiffany,” laughed Trump.

They talked about how Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, signed legislation making his state a “trans refuge” for children who want so-called gender-affirming care. (The measure prevents out-of-state laws from interfering with children receiving such treatment in Minnesota.) “It’s crazy,” said Trump. Some of the women said they were unsure where exactly Harris was on this issue, since she so rarely does interviews.

Trump happily rehashed the controversy around Olympic boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria who hit her opponent, Angela Carini of Italy, so hard she sobbed and quit. He mimed a jabbing motion. “The left is not a hard punch, for those of you who are not into pugilistic affairs,” he explained, and the women chuckled at his odd turn of phrase. “She looked like she got hit by a horse.”

Khelif, who won a gold medal in Paris, endured intense scrutiny over her gender and false accusations by critics that she was transgender. The International Olympic Committee strongly defended her and her right to participate.

Justice said she worried about transition surgeries that are paid for in part by the government and asked Trump what he could possibly do about it as president.

“Well, you can do everything,” he said. “President has such power.” The women clapped.

Justice wanted to draw out his softer side. She asked him about fatherhood. He told a story about how his daughter Ivanka Trump (“beautiful girl, beautiful everything”) gave up her clothing company (“You remember the Ivanka line? She was making so much money with that thing; it was so hot”) to go into government, but then got a ton of bad publicity. “It’s much easier to be a Democrat. Let me put it that way,” he said.

“Tell us about your mom a little bit,” said Justice.

Trump talked about how much he loved his mother and how she came from Scotland. “Did you know that some of the biggest, smartest, most brilliant leaders come from Scotland, and nobody talks about it?” he asked. “Or at least their parents came from Scotland.” They laughed some more.

He had the roomful of women charmed. And yet he just couldn’t help himself. Unprompted, he began to recount how he sparred with Megyn Kelly of Fox News during a 2015 Republican primary debate. She had asked him about his long history of making misogynistic remarks, and he insisted it was only comedian Rosie O’Donnell whom he had insulted in crude terms.

“You remember, right?” he said. “Only Rosie O’Donnell. That was a tough one. Only Rosie O’Donnell.” He did a scold-like impression of Kelly: “‘You’ve said this and that’ — I won’t use the terms — ‘you’ve called women this and that and that …’”

There was some awkward giggling.

“I said, ‘Only Rosie O’Donnell,’” Trump reminisced, “and the place went crazy.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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