Donald Trump Had The Worst Excuse For Not Being A Feminist & I’m Cringing
The latest in "breaking news" from President Donald Trump came in the form of a Twitter declaration from Piers Morgan on Saturday evening, Jan. 27. While recounting an exchange from his recent interview with President Trump, Morgan tweeted about how President Trump reportedly relayed to him his personal feelings about feminism. More specifically, Donald Trump said he's not a feminist, and his terrible reasoning behind it probably won't shock you.
Morgan, a controversial British television host, seemed to believe that he was shattering everyone's previously held notions of Trump with this "bombshell" revelation. His tweet (which was complete with a picture of the pair grinning ear to ear) reportedly revealed "President Trump has declared he is NOT a feminist", and then he went on to recount Trump's shaky explanation as to why he doesn't consider himself a feminist. According to Morgan, Trump told him:
No, I wouldn't say I'm a feminist. I mean, I think that would be, maybe, going too far. I'm for women, I'm for men, I’m for everyone.
So, Trump reportedly believes that calling himself a feminist would be "going too far" because in his own words, he is "for everyone." If that reasoning leaves you scratching your head, you're not alone. Oh, and if you've already had an inclination that this might be Trump's stance on feminism, you have plenty of not-so-shocked company there, too.
In Morgan's written account of the interview for The Daily Mail, he noted that the "mere notion" of identifying as a feminist seemed "ridiculous" to the president. Trump continued to shy away from calling himself a feminist in the name of being "for everyone" when he said, "I think people have to go out, they have to go out and really do it, and they have to win. And women are doing great, and I’m happy about that." As for advocating for women, Trump simply told Morgan, "Well, I am for them." When pressed further, Trump also claimed, "And I think a lot of them understand that."
There seems to be some miscommunication remaining, though, because just last week during marches commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Women's March, Trump seemed to interpret the protest against his administration as praise, according to CNN.
As soon at the statement about Trump not being a feminist made its way to the internet, people began responding. The reactions ranged from people not being surprised in the least, to others simply providing a definition of feminism — which, by the way, included "everyone."
Dictionary.com provided a definition of what being a feminist means.
"Feminist means advocating social, political, legal, and economic rights for women equal to those of men."
Some people got a good chuckle out of it.
"LMAO, president of the United States doesn’t know what feminism means. Tragic."
Seriously, many people could not have been less surprised by this revelation.
*Pretends to be shocked*
It made for some bitingly sarcastic tweets.
"NARRATOR: It wasn’t breaking news."
Others hoped that Morgan would have used his platform to get answers to more hard-hitting questions.
"Let’s hope this was also at the time you pushed him about sexual assaults, grabbing women and paying off pornstars otherwise its the interview nobody wanted, but him."
While the reported comments by Trump are (sadly) not all that shocking, it is worrisome that the mere mention of feminism leads the leader of the free world to reply that calling himself a feminist would "be going too far." To clarify, Oxford Dictionaries defines feminism as, "The advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes."
Some of Trump's actions have previously led others to accuse him of sexism. For instance, back in July 2017, Trump was visiting French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, when Trump decided that it would be a good idea to comment on the French first lady's physique during their greeting. "You're in such good shape," he said to Mrs. Macron, which led her to back away from Trump.
It's instances like this that shine a light on the way that President Trump possibly views women. Before he was president, Trump bragged to Howard Stern in 2005 about being able to walk in on beauty pageant contestants while they changed in the dressing room under the guise of inspecting the status of the pageant, according to Fortune.
So, no, it's not shocking to hear that President Trump doesn't think of himself of a feminist, but it is a little confusing when his reasoning behind it seemingly lines up exactly with what a feminist is.
