At the end of the second week of April, Women for Trump, an auxiliary arm of the Trump campaign, hosted another of its trademark “Hour to Empower” sessions to rally the female faithful. In keeping with traditions that the newly housebound have adopted since the coronavirus pandemic dropped on the country with its full force, the women broadcasted from home. The president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, served as the de facto host for GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Michigan GOP chair Laura Cox, and Ben Carson’s daughter-in-law Merlynn Carson, who all appeared on a screen split into quadrants.

“We are so fortunate to have a wartime president to lead us through this global challenge!” Lara Trump announced from the upper left corner of the screen, a blueish potted plant over her right shoulder, giant glass candelabra over her left. Carson praised the recently passed stimulus package to the heavens. Collectively, they discussed how “most Democrat governors” have shown their gratitude to Trump during the crisis, with the exception of Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, the ingrate who was “politicizing in time of crisis.” They concluded with some banter about how they’re handling all their home time.



Veteran viewers of the “Hour to Empower” might have experienced it all as a wan attempt at keeping up appearances during the president’s crisis year. It hardly matched the optimistic fervor of the last edition, which took place in Sandy Springs, Georgia, and featured red-clad White House allies Kimberly Guilfoyle and Katrina Pierson regaling a roomful of Peachtree State women about the president’s ability to keep the economy humming. Guilfoyle and Pierson drew the loudest applause from the assembled by enthusing about the number of federal judges Trump had already appointed—judges who, it needed no reminding, were vetted for their extreme anti-choice positions.

Women for Trump have always proclaimed that no matter how misogynistic Trump appears to be, no matter how many women have accused him of abuse, and no matter that he supports policies to abolish women’s liberty, he is in fact “empowering” women. In fairness, “empowerment” is one of those famously flexible terms—akin to that other right-wing go-to word, “liberty”—that’s strayed far from its original meaning. But for these women, theirs is a hobbled empowerment, literally and figuratively.

The damage done to women by the Trump administration has been incalculable, the disempowerment immense. In office, he has set women back decades both politically and through policies aimed at limiting their rights and autonomy. He has promoted hundreds of anti-choice judges, mostly male and white, including two to the Supreme Court. He has encouraged toxic masculinity in his supporters, and pushed for anti-woman policies at every level of government, from the Department of Education to Health and Human Services. And Trump’s election, after the most openly misogynistic campaign in modern history, convinced most Democratic Party regulars that American women were unelectable to the highest office in the land for at least another cycle.

