Monday, January 06, 2025, 12:12AM |  23°
MENU
Advertisement
In this image from video, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during the third night of the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020.(Courtesy of the Committee on Arrangements for the 2020 Republican National Committee via AP)
1
MORE

Pamela Paul: Please, Donald, don't choose a woman for vice-president

AP

Pamela Paul: Please, Donald, don't choose a woman for vice-president

Whoever Donald Trump chooses as his running mate, please let it not be a woman. Before you writie off the vice presidency as a distraction, remember that three years ago, his vice president stood between democracy and autocracy, after he noticed at the very last minute there was a Constitution standing in the way of Trump overturning the 2020 election.

There’s also the very real prospect that should the 78-year-old Trump be reelected, he may not complete his term. And there’s the reality that the pageant has already begun.

He’s holding auditions

“He’s holding these open auditions like it’s ‘The Apprentice,’” Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist, said of Trump to The Guardian. “He will flirt with everyone. He will make them dance. They will all debase themselves and humiliate themselves and jockey for that spot.”

Advertisement

It almost doesn’t matter which one Trump might pick. Not one would significantly help or harm the man whose campaign is built on a cult of one. Not one would likely be given any significant power.

In this Jan. 17, 2021, file photo  Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., introduces Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence to speak to Army 10th Mountain Division soldiers in Fort Drum, N.Y.
Gene Collier
Gene Collier: Elise Stefanik will say anything to be Trump's vice president

If he chooses a woman, the most certain impact will be in the insidious implied message: If Trump runs with a woman, then Trump has no problem with women, and women should have no problem with him. That not enough women apparently care shouldn’t allow Trump the velveteen cover a female running mate would provide.

Those already in the lineup include Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who quickly forfeited his nonstarter of a campaign and followed Trump to New Hampshire. But most of the other top contenders are women.

If you’re about to say, “Well, at least it might be a woman,” my response is, it better not be.

Advertisement

The most obvious problem is the particular women in question. There’s Rep. Elise Stefanik of upstate New York (“She’s a killer,” Trump has remarked), who also accompanied Trump to New Hampshire. She was notably one of the first Republicans to endorse Trump’s second bid for reelection and has said she’d be “honored” to serve.

There’s his steadfast former press secretary and the current governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who has carefully not denied that she wants the job. Kristi Noem, the second-term governor of South Dakota, who campaigned for Trump in Iowa, went so far as to say she would consider it.

Less likely — but what’s predictable when it comes to Trump? — are wing nut devotees Kari Lake of Arizona and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Finally, in the Mitt Romney “make them grovel” mold, his primary competitor Nikki Haley, who has flat-out said it’s “off the table.”

All of them MAGA in their politics or MAGA-adjacent. By the second, I mean Haley, a former Trump official and a politician so wobbly she still hasn’t had the guts to unequivocally denounce Trump.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, left, announces Rep. Tim Scott, right, as Sen. Jim DeMint’s replacement in the U.S. Senate during a news conference at the South Carolina Statehouse, in Columbia, S.C. in this December 2021 file image.
David Shribman
David Shribman: Top Republicans angling for the number-two job

The kind of women Trump likes

All of them are the kinds of women Trump ostensibly likes, in large part because they play into the demeaning gendered stereotypes he basks in, whether it’s the steely, stilettoed vixen or the no-nonsense broad.

Of the first sort, Noem and Lake both look the part, which has always been top of mind to Trump, who told his female staffers to “dress like women.” They’re impeccably groomed in the ready-for-TV mold of Ivanka Trump and Kellyanne Conway.

Of the second type, there’s Mean Girl Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon fantasist whose relationship to the truth rivals that of election lawyer turned criminal Sidney Powell, and the forceful but unthreatening Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Yes, these are all distasteful stereotypes, but they are ones these women seem more than willing to embrace in the name of their Dark Lord.

This is — never forget — a man whose campaign should have been halted in Round 1 in 2016 after he was caught bragging about molesting women. Even if his pre-presidential record hadn’t fully revealed Trump’s thuggish sexism, the multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against him, as well as a judge finding that when a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll, it essentially said he raped her, have cemented it in.

Trump has said he likes “the concept” of a woman vice president, perhaps a more telling phrase than he intended. Of course, he sees women more as a concept than as a reality, an accessory or a servant to attend to his needs. At a time when women’s rights have been substantively stripped and threatened, this is the last vision of womanhood America needs.

The best subverter

Trump has also said he’ll choose “the best person.” Most likely this will be someone who carries out his will and does not get in his way.

He will choose someone who subverts the very essence of what a vice-presidential candidate should be, someone fit to take over the highest office in the land. If he chooses a woman, it will be to cloak one of the most sexist presidencies in modern history.

If Trump shares the ticket with a woman in 2024 you can be sure of one thing: It will be the furthest thing from a step forward for women.

Pamela Paul is a columnist for The New York Times, where this article first appeared. Her previous article was “Raining on Barbie’s hot pink parade.”

First Published: February 10, 2024, 10:30 a.m.

RELATED
SHOW COMMENTS (77)  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
Downtown Pittsburgh and snow-covered barges can be seen from a drone on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025.
1
news
Forecast: Major winter storm will brush Pittsburgh — but slight shift could trigger severe conditions
Warrington Avenue in Allentown is seen Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. As Mayor Ed Gainey prepares for a competitive Democratic primary election in May, the more than two dozen neighborhoods south of the Monongahela and Ohio rivers could play a pivotal role in electing the city’s next leader.
2
news
Pittsburgh's southern neighborhoods could play a pivotal role in 2025 mayoral election
Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najee Harris (22) dives for a first down against the Cincinnati Bengals at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, in the North Shore. The Cincinnati Bengals won 19-17.
3
sports
Gerry Dulac: Steelers ran themselves into trouble against Bengals
Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin watches his team play the Cincinnati Bengals at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, in the North Shore. The Cincinnati Bengals won 19-17.
4
sports
Ray Fittipaldo’s Steelers report card: Mike Tomlin’s curious decisions, conservative game plan spell doom
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens (14) misses a pass while playing the Cincinnati Bengals at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, in the North Shore. The Cincinnati Bengals won 19-17.
5
sports
Joe Starkey: The Steelers offense stinks. Let’s talk about George Pickens and Matt Canada — I mean, Arthur Smith
In this image from video, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during the third night of the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020.(Courtesy of the Committee on Arrangements for the 2020 Republican National Committee via AP)  (AP)
AP
Advertisement
LATEST opinion
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story