Remember me
Marion McKeone
MAGA HAS A problem with women. Not the type of woman that embraces the submissive trad wife role championed by JD Vance and his merry band of MAGA misogynists. But they harbour a deep-seated antipathy towards women who dare to challenge their white Christian male view of how America should operate.
Anyone who witnessed Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s Sunday morning performance on CNN could be forgiven for questioning what America’s Health Secretary had for breakfast. Rabies-infected roadkill perhaps? Or a testosterone and beef tallow smoothie – with a side order of toilet-seat cocaine?
Apoplectic that moderator Dana Bash challenged his Covid-related lies and vaccine-related nonsense, Kennedy erupted into a caricature of red-faced, spittle-flecked MAGA fury. Jabbing his finger towards Bash’s face, thighs juddering and temple veins popping, he drowned out her questions with a high-decibel volley of insults, claiming she was “flustered”, “repeating like a parrot”, “saying nonsense” and “making assertions you can’t support”.
Bash’s composure in the face of some epic mansplaining enraged him even further. “You probably don’t understand this because you’re not a scientist,” he told her.
“Well, neither are you,” she responded.
CNN / YouTubeLike all Trump flunkeys who do the rounds on Sunday morning talk shows, Kennedy was performing for an audience of one. The US president has been piling on the pressure of late, pushing Kennedy to establish a link between vaccines and autism.
The Health Secretary’s attempts to link autism to vaccines, Tylenol and even male circumcision are short on supporting evidence. So he opted for the next best thing in a bid to placate his boss: an attack on a female member of the ‘fake news’ media.
‘Those Nasty Women’Imitation, after all, is the sincerest form of flattery, and Trump has a long history of belittling female reporters, attempting to silence them with insults targeting their looks and intelligence.
During the recent White House Press Correspondents Association dinner retread, Trump’s attempt to humiliate CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins by mocking her looks and professionalism foundered in the face of her steely composure. Kennedy’s diatribe against Bash likewise failed to find its mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQjg_TtO71o
Misogyny was alive and thriving in DC’s corridors of power long before Trump’s arrival. Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris have variously reduced Congressional Republicans to a sputtering fury.
And Democrats are no slouches when it comes to the mistreatment of women. RFJ Jr may have betrayed the Kennedy clan’s cherished political values, but he has remained loyal to his male ancestors’ traditions of adultery and sexual misconduct.
Bill Clinton’s abuse of power in conducting an affair with 21-year-old intern Monica Lewinsky preceded his risible attempt to cover up the scandal and stave off impeachment proceedings. And more recently, Democrats failed to properly vet Graham Platner, and were initially reluctant to drop him when former girlfriends accused him of violence and intimidation, lest they forfeit their best chance of wresting the Maine Senate seat from Susan Collins.
But it’s fair to say that the recent embrace female subjugation is mainly confined to the MAGA manosphere. Todd Blanche, who has resisted court orders to release the Epstein files and shown contempt for his victims, is about to be sworn in as Attorney General.
Trump’s longtime friendship with the notorious paedophile, his record of belittling and berating women, his legally confirmed status as a sexual assailant and willingness to help Andrew and Tristan Tate evade rape and sex trafficking charges in Romania has shaped a culture where the physical and sexual abuse of women is tolerated and even celebrated.
Max Miller scandalThe seeds of toxic masculinity sown during the first Trump term have yielded a bumper harvest during his second. But the Max Miller scandal may be the one that tests the outer limits of what American voters are willing to tolerate.
37-year-old Miller, a White House staffer during Trump’s first term, was elected to Congress in 2022 with Trump’s endorsement, as a representative for Ohio’s 7th District. Two years later, Trump was instrumental in securing an Ohio Senate seat for Bernie Moreno, Miller’s father-in-law and a long-time Trump supporter.
The previous year, Miller had married Moreno’s daughter in a lavish wedding ceremony that took place at Trump’s Bedminster golf resort. But the union of two powerful MAGA families quickly unravelled amid allegations of domestic violence and drug abuse.
Emily Moreno claimed that Miller had scalded her with boiling water, held a gun to her head and repeatedly assaulted her.
Court documents revealed that their two-year-old daughter suffered a fractured collarbone and ‘hand-shaped bruising’ while in Miller’s care, which he claimed was caused by a seat-belt injury. The claims were investigated by police and child protection specialists, but no charges were brought.
For months, social media was awash with details of the allegations and demands for Miller’s resignation. Leading Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Moreno, repeatedly dodged questions about his fitness for office. Earlier this week Trump sought to do likewise, describing Miller as ‘a very good person’ and suggesting the allegations of domestic violence and drug abuse were ‘a family matter’.
During an interview with CNN host Jake Tapper on Tuesday, Miller, by turn belligerent and evasive, denied claims he had assaulted his ex-wife and a former girlfriend, and dismissed corroborated reports he once pushed a classmate down a flight of stairs after she rebuffed him.
The CNN interview followed an online video and document dump, that seemed to corroborate some of his ex-wife’s claims and triggered an ugly eruption between Miller and Moreno, who broke his silence to claim Miller was unfit for office and needed psychological help.
CNN / YouTubePressed by Tapper about the looming midterms, he insisted he would remain in Congress, citing Trump’s defiance in the final weeks of the 2016 election, when multiple allegations of sexual misconduct threatened to derail his bid for the White House.
Touting Trump’s scandal-tainted campaign as his motivation to remain in Congress isn’t a great look for the US President, who has privately advised Miller that his reelection campaign against Democrat challenger Brian Poindexter is in trouble.
Democrats are widely expected to take control of the House, but Miller could cost Republicans a safe seat. GOP pollsters fret that may be too toxic for the moderates and independents who voted for him in 2024.
Allegations of violence were also levied against Miller during Trump’s first term when he began a relationship with Stephanie Grisham, a one-time friend of Melania Trump who served as her Chief of Staff before a brief stint as Trump’s Press Secretary.
In her bestselling memoir about her White House experience, Grisham claimed Miller quickly became abusive and she lived in terror of his rages. According to her account, when she told Trump and the First Lady about the escalating abuse, they appeared ‘totally unfazed’ and failed to intervene on her behalf.
It wasn’t the only domestic violence scandal involving White House staffers that Trump chose to ignore. When two ex-wives of Rob Porter claimed he had repeatedly assaulted them, Trump appeared to sympathise with Porter.
Mid-term elections are widely viewed as a referendum on the incumbent. Trump’s war in Iran and failure to curb America’s cost of living crisis have already resulted in record low approval ratings.
Republicans are counting billions of dollars from mega donors and MAGA bros like Elon Musk to motivate young male voters who have flocked to the right-wing manosphere. But they’ll have to reckon with a surge in women voters who are outraged by the normalisation of Mad Man era misogyny in a Trump administration stocked with Dan Draper wannabes – minus the looks, charisma or creative talent.
Marion McKeone is an award-winning journalist, writer and documentary maker.