Trump allies fear 'pea-sized brain' strategies are 'chasing away half the electorate'

Donald Trump has banked his re-election chances on turning out young male voters, but that strategy has only compounded his long-standing problem with women voters.

The former president's campaign has been telegraphing a distinctly aggressive tone to help attract young men, who they believe are an untapped demographic in an election where voters are dissatisfied with the direction of the country, but some Trump allies worry this strategy will widen the gender gap that puts him far behind Vice President Kamala Harris with women, reported the Washington Post.

“It’s obvious Republicans have a woman problem, but it’s not just about policy differences like abortion. The GOP gender gap is just as much about how you talk about those differences,” said Nachama Soloveichik, a Republican strategist and former adviser to Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign. “Regardless of gender, any political staffer with a pea-sized brain should know chasing away half the electorate is a bad idea. Talk to women with respect and understanding even when you disagree.”

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Haley, who endorsed Trump at the Republican National Convention after challenging him in the GOP primary, has encouraged him and running mate J.D. Vance to reconsider how they talk about Harris and women, in general, and current and former advisers have urged the campaign to recruit more women surrogates, while former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel has told others his campaign is too male-dominated.

“If you’re having problems with women, why would you bring on Corey Lewandowski?” asked one longtime Trump ally.

Staffers say the campaign's dynamic has worsened since Trump brought back Lewandowski, his former 2016 campaign manager who has been accused of grabbing a woman reporter's arm and sexually harassing a donor, but other campaign officials say he has reduced his presence at headquarters and doesn't play a supervisory role.

“The Washington Compost continues to regurgitate old news because you are desperate for Comrade Kamala to be President," Lewandowski said when asked for comment. "I’m a volunteer and am proud to donate my time to help President Trump Make America Great Again.”

The campaign's senior staff is made up overwhelmingly of men, but several women do serve in high-ranking roles, including co-campaign manager Susie Wiles, senior communications aide Danielle Alvarez, fundraiser Meredith O’Rourke, national press secretary Karoline Leavitt, senior adviser Lynne Patton and attorney Alina Habba, while Trump chose his daughter-in-law Lara Trump as RNC co-chair.

“President Trump has entrusted a woman to lead his campaign, and he has hundreds of powerful females proudly working on his behalf,” Leavitt said. “The men referenced in this story are our teammates in our shared mission to win this election. Maybe at the Kamala HQ they cry over their gender and pronouns, but here on Team Trump, we only care about one thing: victory on November 5th.”

Wiles, however, has privately told allies that one of her biggest challenges to managing the campaign is “too much testosterone," and some colleagues have reportedly expressed shock at how male staffers, in particular operations director Justin Caporale, talk over her in meetings.

The campaign argues that Trump's emphasis on the economy and crime resonates with women just as much as men, and they highlighted some polling that shows a narrower gender gap than in 2020, but many Republicans believe he's striking the wrong tone.

“We don’t need to be protected,” said longtime GOP strategist Antonia Ferrier, pointing to Trump's "PROTECT WOMEN" post on social media. “We need engagement. Right now, I would say that engagement on the Republican side of the aisle is lacking and could be improved. I think for a lot of women who are mothers, daughters, sisters, they are raising children. Some of the tone and rhetoric just turns a lot of suburban women off because they are trying to raise good children.”