Former President Donald Trump said Monday he was making a statement to women at his campaign rally because he’d seen news reports that “women don’t like me.”
“I am your protector,” he told the crowd gathered in Indiana, Pennsylvania.
“I always thought women liked me. I never thought I had a problem. But the fake news keeps saying women don’t like me. I don’t believe it,” Trump said.
“Sadly, women are poorer than they were four years ago, much poorer; are less healthy than they were four years ago; are less safe on the streets than they were four years ago; are paying much higher prices for groceries and everything else than they were four years ago; are more stressed and depressed and unhappy than they were four years ago; and are less optimistic and confident in the future than they were four years ago. I believe that. I will fix all of that and fast. And at long last, this nation and national nightmare will end,” Trump said, echoing a social media post he made last week.
The former president added, “Because I am your protector. I want to be your protector. As president, I have to be your protector. I hope you don’t make too much of it. I hope the fake news doesn’t go, oh he wants to be their protector. Well, I am. As president, I have to be your protector.”
Earlier this month, Trump lashed out at several women who have accused him of sexual assault, including E. Jean Carroll, following a hearing in New York where the former president’s attorneys tried to convince a federal appeals court that he should get a new trial after a jury found he sexually abused and defamed Carroll. A jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages following a two-week trial last year, and then a separate jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in damages after finding Trump defamed her in 2022.
