|
Trump isn't the solution to the "crisis of manhood," he's the problem
The misogyny comes fast and furious. Anything real to make men's lives better? Not so much.
|
| |||||||||||||||
 |
🗣️ Public Notice is 100 percent reader funded. If you appreciate our fiercely independent coverage of American politics, please sign up and support us. 👇
Congratulations, men of America: The crisis of manhood is over.
You have been liberated from the shackles of political correctness, free to be as sexist and crude as you like. The government in Washington is committed to ensuring that men will wield the power they deserve. DEI has been banished from public and private institutions alike. The “manosphere” dominates online culture. Before you know it, men, you’ll have the professional prospects and romantic success you’ve been longing for.
This was one of the core promises of the Trump restoration. His 2024 campaign put reaching out to disaffected men at the center of its strategy. Trump and his advisers looked at the fact that many men (especially young men) felt uncertain about their place in the world and what was expected of them, and saw an opportunity. So he went on every dudebro podcast he could find, and it paid off: According to Pew Research Center data, he beat Kamala Harris among men by 12 points, 55 percent to 43 percent.
 |
|
But what do America’s men stand to gain from the Trump presidency? We’ll get to that question in a bit, but first we should consider the attitude the president and those around him bring to politics and encourage others to adopt.
Witness this Instagram post from his son Don Jr., who is not a 14-year-old boy but a 47-year-old man:
 |
If you didn’t get the reference, here’s the explanation: At a string of recent WNBA games, someone in the stands hurled a green dildo onto the court during play. The incidents turned out to be an effort by the purveyors of a meme coin to attract attention for their cheeky little crypto product.
The gentlemen behind what they called a “prank” insist that their meme coin is not a pump-and-dump scheme, an assertion belied by the fact that every meme coin is inherently a pump-and-dump scheme. But their choice to hurl dildos at WNBA players had a very particular message: You may think you are elite athletes, but to us you are still here to be mocked and sexualized and demeaned. And when Don Jr. posted that image to his 9.7 million followers, he was saying That’s what I think of you too, and so does my dad.
Which of course, he does. That the president believes he and men like him have the right to sexually dominate and degrade women is beyond dispute, as the two dozen women who have publicly accused him of sexual abuse can testify. “When you’re a star, they let you do it,” he said on that notorious Access Hollywood tape, then later in a deposition insisted that “if you look over the last million years, I guess that's been largely true … unfortunately, or fortunately.” There’s no doubt which he thinks it is.
A note from Aaron: Enjoying this piece from Paul? Then please sign up to support our work 📊 Paid subscribers keep PN free for everyone 📊