Donald Trump to make his pitch for a second term to an all-female town hall

In an effort to appeal to a demographic in the United States with whom he has repeatedly struggled, former president Donald Trump will ask questions from an all-female audience at a town hall the following week.

The conservative network Fox News announced the town hall on Friday as Kamala Harris, the former president, lost to female voters in this election cycle behind his Democratic challenger.

A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll suggests Harris is leading by 9 percentage points among women, 53 percent to 44 percent.

According to Fox News host Harris Faulkner, who will moderate the town hall, “women constitute the largest group of registered and active voters in the United States, so it is crucial that female voters understand where the presidential candidates stand on the issues that matter most to them.”

“I’m looking forward to giving our viewers a chance to find out more about the position that former president Trump held on these issues.”

Given the possibility that Vice President Harris will become the first woman to win the White House and Trump’s own history of scandals, political analysts say Trump’s declining support among women shouldn’t come as a surprise.

The former president has a long history of making advances toward women. He famously bragged about grabbing women by the genitalia in an audio that was leaked during his 2016 presidential campaign and has attacked female candidates and media figures for their appearance and intelligence, most recently calling Harris “mentally impaired.”

Additionally, Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than a dozen people. In 2019, one of his accusers, author E Jean Carroll, filed the first of two civil lawsuits against Trump, claiming he defamed her after she accused him of rape.

In 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse, awarding Carroll millions of dollars in damages.

Trump’s first wife, Ivana Trump, also accused him of rape in a deposition made public in the 1990s, but she later refuted the statement, crediting it to an acrimonious divorce.

Still, Trump’s relationships have continued to make headlines, even during the current election cycle.

Trump became the first US president to face criminal charges in May when he was found guilty of 34 felony falsifying business records related to an alleged $1 million payment to an adult film actress.

The Republican leader’s policies have also weakened his standing among female voters, according to pollsters. Trump appointed three US Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had established previous federal restrictions on access to abortions.

That ruling, in 2022, prompted widespread protest over reproductive freedom. His first election, in 2016, likewise drew millions of women to protests across the country.

Not all women have been turned off by Trump’s rhetoric or policies. Even though recent polls suggest that support may be declining, the former president still won over white women in 2016 and 2020.

According to a recent survey from the health policy agency KFF, abortion access has recently been a rallying cry for young women under the age of 30. Even the former president’s own wife, Melania Trump, recently broke with him to publicly state her support for abortion.

In a video posted on social media, the former first lady stated, “Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise” regarding the fundamental right that all women have from birth, which is individual freedom. “What does ‘ my body, my choice ‘ really mean”?

Source: Aljazeera