Go back 35 years, and you see it. It’s right there as part of the story, impossible to avoid. The man who used to go on Howard Stern’s radio show to run down a list of women and grade them from one through 10, full body, definitely face and features, President Donald J. Trump would sputter out a number, “She’s an 8.5, would be a nine or more if she weren’t so flat,” or something similarly as offensive as juvenile.
Decades later, and he’s still at it; perhaps he’s matured out of vocalizing the grade, but the women at the White House better bring the mandated look. Trump wants them ready for cameras and his eyes, always. It is now exhausting them into little leaks about the look he demands.
We all know the MAGA look; it’s the only one available, that’s the point. Without regard to the time of day or night, each one rolls through the White House makeup studio, where apparently they specialize in one style, the one the boss wants. The excuse is that if you work at that level, you better look the part.
To be somewhat just as cruel, he expects the same of the men and their suits, but it’s far easier for men, and probably is really for the cameras and not the other lens in play.
In a Mail on Sunday report, multiple female White House staffers revealed the “draining” expectations put on women working in Trump’s orbit. And that the toll might be driving the otherwise most talented women out the door (talent for lying, snarkiness, mean girl stuff). Sure, sure, the boss demands they be camera-ready: “Those glossy smiles and immaculate clothes are, of course, what the outside world sees.”
But this isn’t that, because the real problem lies within the White House. The report notes what we all know: the cloud of disgusting misogyny that formed over the man who bragged about walking through the Miss Teen USA pageant remains, despite the fact that we hear very little news about the battles we assume are going on in the White House — battles that seem all but inevitable and yet remain protected by a moat-like silence regarding the experience of being a woman around a guy that bragged about grabbing intimate parts.
True. The inexplicable silence has one loud exception, and it might make up for the lack of lingering issues threatening to blow the dump… (The symbolism in every sentence just can’t be intentional, can it?). There is the ever-present Natalie Harp, and ever-present is doing some heavy lifting in that sentence. The world has known of this weirdness for a while, but it took the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman to take it to the next level when she said: “[Harp] is sort of his binky, for lack of a better way of putting it.“
Everyone huddle up. Not one word on where to take that, begging for analogies, hilarious double entendre; everyone, just turn around and suppress all the screaming symbolism, and simply acknowledge that we need not know anything more. Because we already know that Harp happens to be a blonde bombshell attached at the hip of this particular man. Given what we suspect, we can be sure what such a situation would do to any marriage. Even something purely platonic would result in a plain service of papers from a partner.
Wave it aside because Harp never seems bothered by the opportunity. She’s unquestionably a capable adult as opposed to some other “leaks” we’ve heard from decades ago, and she never seems to be blinking in Morse code to get her out. She actually looks elated.
Fine.
But most women are not, and despite the fact that we have about as much empathy for anyone working to advance this administration’s agenda as they have for us, none, it’s still worth examining.
Why? The women knew what they were getting into. But it matters anyway because if a man and then men surrounding him create such an environment, imagine what they think of the women in this country who are coming home from work, kissing their partners, and running the kids to swim lessons wearing an Eddie Bauer Sweater and Levi’s. They don’t count. True, to the Republicans in power, no Democrat counts — but there’s a special disdain for strong women going about their lives, worried far less about their looks than their legitimacy as empowered equals.
But policy after policy put forth by this president degrades American women’s role and environment. Let’s start with the most obvious: Trump and Hegseth refusing to promote deserving women to general or admiral rank in the military, women far too concerned with protecting the nation, teaching their troops, plotting strategy, to worry about Botox injections and $250 hair.
Immediately following Trump’s inauguration, he simply assumed that any woman who had earned a place in the government’s vast bureaucracy, the people whose work made the government work, were hired to fill quotas and fired them.
Of course, there is even more in-your-face stuff (literally) in appointing judges fiercely fighting anything that could be called abortion even as the mother lay dying on an operating table. And Trump oversaw the indefensible change to Title IX in 2020, making it far harder for young women everywhere to bring sexual harassment claims on campus, requiring more evidence, raising the burden of proof.
Now that one sure overlaps with what we hear about the environment in the White House, with halls of horrors for women specifically chosen for a role that all but demands sexual harassment, or at least offensive expectations, which, because of the spread to women throughout the nation, we can abhor.
But there may be limits because it sounds like the first team, the varsity, the most sexually appealing (to Trump), loyal, and maddeningly competent are crashing and cashing out, none more prominent than Karoline Leavitt. As my co-columnist John Casey noted, none of us can blame her; she has two beautiful babies at home and a beautiful income with which to support them. It’s a minor miracle she lasted this long.
But she’s not the only one. The Daily Mail notes the departure of Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson and Director of Media Affairs Sonny Joy Nelson. But the tenor of the article is such that it feels like several underlings have left, with more to follow. From the outside, that may be a good thing: the first string, the most effective and most striking, the type that can dependably implement these horrific policies may soon be gone, replaced by equally exquisite MAGA melting personnel, priority one, but likely lessers in everything else.
Let’s leave with this. One of the most remarkable features of Trump White House Part Two has been the silence regarding palace intrigue. Yes, books have been written about the actual implementation of duties, accompanied by some juicy details. But in an environment that simply must be bursting with toxic testosterone, it’s been weirdly quiet.
But news of the utter exasperation accompanying Leavitt’s leaving has cracked the door. The leaks didn’t squeeze themselves. And for Haberman to feel comfortable assessing Natalie Harp as… Trump’s binky, well, it says a great deal about a woman’s place around Trump: less advising, more soothing. A man would be an essential aide. Not Harp.
If Harp is having a blast… my word, if she’s fine with it, fine. But for the other women called in at 6 a.m. on a Saturday, having to toss the sweater aside for the makeup chair and wardrobe for the most real television show in the history of reality TV, well, they certainly can’t say that they’re enduring extra abuse. They endure far less than many women around the country.
Meanwhile, Leavitt left her mark, having never worn an even moderately loose outfit in her entire tenure. But for the most prominent White House voice under “his” voice, vociferously attempting to validate ridding the nation of DEI and Title IX, to now go home to two babies with all the wealth needed to never be nervous, something incredibly rare for most women in this country seems offensive.
But without regard to anything else, especially the decimation of women’s rights in this country, the right to be free of sexual harassment — never enduring a comment about a nice body, joking about heels, begging she bend over, and so much worse — it’s wrong in the White House, and like a virus, spreads disgustingly from there.
White House staffers have the option to leave. Daughters headed off to college don’t. It took this long to leak? It better take a lot less time for women everywhere to yell far and wide about everything unacceptable.
All the way down to 18-year-olds in their Levi’s and sweaters, formerly protected by Title IX, but drawing Trump’s eyes now for 30 years.
Jason Miciak is a Rawstory Columnist, former editor of Occupy Democrats, author, attorney, and single parent girldad. Please follow on Bluesky, and he can be reached at [email protected].
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