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Former President Donald Trump has a long history of making sexist comments about women’s looks, and there’s a reason for that. Sexism is not a side effect but a cornerstone of his values, outlined and reiterated in his books, interviews, tweets (RIP), and otherwise conveyed remarks over the years: Women have value only insofar as their sex appeal, as judged by him and his narrow definition of what constitutes a good-looking woman. Asked whether he’d stay with former First Lady Melania Trump after a disfiguring car crash, Trump famously answered “How do the breasts look?” If women are to express ambition beyond satisfying their husband, a notion he discourages (“when I come home and dinner’s not ready, I go through the roof,” he said in a 1994 ABC interview), any accomplishments are undoubtedly due to their looks in Trump’s world. In 2014, he told reporter Maria Ngo interviewing him that she wouldn’t have her job if she weren’t beautiful: “It’s very sad, isn’t it?”
It is sad, but not for the reasons Trump thinks. It’s sad because his mind has been so permanently limited to view fifty percent of the population as moving pieces of art used to feed one’s ego and furnish one’s life with comforts. In the spring of 2021, new tapes reviewed by the Washington Post revealed Trump making a crack at another former First Lady: Michelle Obama, whom he sarcastically called “beautiful” in a play for laughs from his Mar-a-Lago audience of Republican donors. After so many years in which we condoned Trump rating women’s attractiveness on national TV in the pageant scene, the former president seems pathologically incapable of observing anything but the looks of women, even and especially when their looks have had nothing to do with their contributions to society.
From French president Emmanuel Macron’s wife Brigitte to Hillary Clinton to Kim Kardashian, no women are exempt from Trump’s unfiltered thoughts on their appearance. Whether it’s good or bad is irrelevant — contrary to Trump’s beliefs, the women he speaks of are not automatons whose synapses fire up when they receive a compliment from men, but in fact people like you and me, people who could happily go our whole lives without knowing what Trump thinks of our faces, bodies, and so forth. For a long list of women that now includes Michelle Obama, that wasn’t an option — as proven by Trump’s gross comments on their looks below.
A version of this story was originally published in 2021.
Michelle Obama
Speaking to a group of Republican donors at Mar-a-Lago in April 2021, Trump once again ranted about his baseless beliefs he had the election stolen from him and laughed at Democrats’ efforts in the Georgia senate elections, at one point mentioning “Barack Hussein Obama and the very beautiful Michelle Obama were there” — before pausing for the guests’ laughs.
Kim Kardashian
In 2013, Trump told Showbiz Tonight: “She’s really a nice person. She’s gotten a little bit large. I don’t think you should dress like you weigh 120 pounds.” Later that year, he told Howard Stern: “Does she have a good body? No. Does she have a fat ass? Absolutely.”
Samantha Cohen
Michael Cohen’s daughter Samantha Cohen was just 15 years old when Trump first commented on her looks. “Look at that piece of a**,” Trump said to her father at the time, per Cohen’s memoir Disloyal. “I’d love some of that.” When Cohen indicated that was his daughter, Trump replied: That’s your daughter? When did she get so hot?”
Angelina Jolie
In 2007, Trump told Access Hollywood that the public had Angelina Jolie all wrong: “Angelina Jolie is sort of amazing because everyone thinks she’s like this great beauty. And I’m not saying she’s an unattractive woman, but she’s not beauty, by any stretch of the imagination. In terms of beauty, she’s not a great beauty. She’s a nice looking woman. She’s OK. But she’s not a great beauty.”
Brigitte Macron
While visiting with French president Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Trump greeted Brigitte by looking her up and down and saying “you’re in such good shape,” before turning to her husband and repeating: “She’s in such good physical shape. Beautiful.”
Hillary Clinton
In 2016, running against Hillary Clinton for president, Trump said this to a group in Cleveland: “Does she look presidential, fellas? Give me a break.”
He later clarified his comments on an ABC interview: “Well, I just don’t think she has a presidential look, and you need a presidential look.”
Carly Fiorina
When Carly Fiorina announced her presidential candidacy in 2015, Trump said this to Rolling Stone: “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president? I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?”
Rosie O’Donnell
“Rosie O’Donnell is disgusting, both inside and out. If you take a look at her, she’s a slob. How does she even get on television? If I were running The View, I’d fire Rosie,” Trump said in an unaired rant on Entertainment Tonightin 2012. “I’d look her right in that fat, ugly face of hers and say, ‘Rosie, you’re fired.'”
Lysandra Ohrstrom
Ivanka Trump’s childhood friend Lysandra Ohrstrom (not pictured) revealed in a 2020 Vanity Fair op-ed how Trump had monitored her figure as a teenager: “Though he never remembered my name, he seemed to have a photographic memory for changes in my body. I’ll never forget the time Ivanka and I were having lunch with her brothers at Mar-a-Lago one day, and while Mr. Trump was saying hi, Don Jr. swiped half a grilled cheese sandwich off my plate. Ivanka scolded him, but Mr. Trump chimed in, ‘Don’t worry. She doesn’t need it. He’s doing her a favor.”
Paris Hilton
In a 2001 radio show, Trump sounded off on a number of women’s looks including Paris Hilton: “Now, somebody who a lot of people don’t give credit to but in actuality is really beautiful is Paris Hilton. I’ve known Paris Hilton from the time she’s 12, her parents are friends of mine, and the first time I saw her she walked into the room and I said, ‘Who the hell is that?'”
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