The Trump men are very worried about the fate of their kind. Before he boarded Air Force One on Tuesday, President Donald Trump was asked by a reporter, “What do you say to young men in America?” He replied, “Well, I’d say that it’s a very scary time for young men in America when you can be guilty of something you may not be guilty of.” Asked if he had a message for young women, he said, “Women are doing great.”

Trump was echoing the words of his eldest son, who the previous day told an interviewer, “I’ve got boys and I’ve got girls and when I see what’s going on now, it’s scary for all things.” Asked if he feared more for his daughters or his sons, Trump Jr. said, “Right now, I’d say my sons.”



The context of these comments is the increasingly fraught nomination of Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court. In addition to the multiple accusations of sexual assault against him, there are now other objections that are less severe, but perhaps enough to sink his bid. These include claims that he lied to or misled the Senate under oath, that he was not simply the studious scholar-athlete he portrayed himself to be, and that in defending himself in last week’s hearing he displayed an anger and partisan resentment unbecoming of a judge, let alone one aspiring for a seat in the highest court in the land.

In response, Republicans and other Kavanaugh supporters have recast their defense of him in broader terms. Not only has Kavanaugh been wronged, they argue, but his treatment by his opponents and the media shows how any man could be victimized in the age of #MeToo. The fight over the Supreme Court nominee’s confirmation thus has become a trial over masculinity itself.



This turn of events is consistent with the Republican Party’s own brand of identity politics of late, in which men, rather than women, are portrayed as the beleaguered gender in American society.