Opinion: Trump needs female voters. Calling Harris ‘dumb’ should do it!

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has the utmost respect for women. For proof, go back to earlier this week when he referred to the six female hosts of ABC’s “The View” as “dumb women” and “degenerates.”
He also called Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who was a guest on the show, a “dummy.”
Anyone thinking this is sexist and horrendous behavior and a terrible way to win over female voters in the weeks before an election is missing the nuances of Trump’s strategy. You see, he might have called those prominent and successful women dummies, but he notably didn’t call ALL women dummies. You see? There’s a big difference if you don’t think about it.
On Thursday, for example, Trump showed tremendous respect for women during a speech at the Detroit Economic Club when he said of Harris: “I think she’s dumber than hell.”
She was the only person he called “dumber than hell” the entire time. Impressive.
At rallies, Trump has referred to Harris – who is the sitting vice president and a former U.S. senator and former attorney general of California – as a “stupid person,” “weak,” “dumb as a rock” and “lazy.” 
He said recently: “Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way.”
He also called her “mentally disabled.”
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Now some dummies out there might think Trump is a misogynist just because of his lengthy history of misogyny and the fact that he is an adjudicated rapist who was heard on the “Access Hollywood” tapes saying: “I moved on her like a b—-. But I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony t–s and everything.”
But that overlooks all the things he has done for women, like making sure their reproductive rights get decided differently depending on which state they live in, courtesy of Roe v. Wade being overturned by Trump-appointed U.S. Supreme Court justices. (You’re welcome, ladies!)
Back in August, Trump posted on social media: “My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.”
I mean … what more do female voters need to hear in order to feel confident Trump probably won’t call them dummies or do anything else to rob them of their basic rights?
 At a Pennsylvania rally Wednesday night, Trump returned to the issue most women care about: Harris’ appearance on “The View.” He said of cohost Sunny Hostin: “I think the other one asking the question is dumber than Kamala. She’s a dummy. I’ve watched her over the years. That is one dumb – that is one dumb woman.”
Now, again, Trump is only talking about, in his words, “one dumb woman.”
Hostin got her law degree from the University of Notre Dame and was a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice. But it’s important to note that Trump is only calling her dumb, and not calling every other accomplished woman in America dumb. Totally NOT SEXIST.
Nachama Soloveichik, a Republican strategist and former adviser to Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign, recently criticized the way Trump speaks about women, telling The Washington Post: “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.”
I’m pretty sure I know what Trump would call that strategist, amirite fellas?!? High-five!
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Anyhoo, it’s all a bunch of hysterical nonsense, because Trump has directly told the women of America: “I will be your protector.”
And anyone who has been asleep since the 1950s knows women want nothing more than a man who will protect them. There’s nothing insulting or sexist about Trump talking to women like they’re helpless, saying: “You will no longer be abandoned, lonely or scared. You will no longer be in danger.”
He’s truly a feminist, and he has shown that for years by making sexist comments only sometimes:
There are only probably hundreds of other examples.
And it’s not like Trump picked a running mate in Ohio Sen. JD Vance who has called women who don’t have children “childless cat ladies” and supported a federal abortion ban and signed a letter calling on the Justice Department to use the Comstock Act to prevent abortion pills from being shipped through the mail. (Don’t bother Googling any of that, female voters. Remember, Donald Trump will protect you.)
In conclusion, the women of America have nothing to fear from a Trump presidency. He has shown, definitively, that he respects all women.
Except for the ones whose rights he took away, and the ones he calls dummies, and the ones he thinks are nasty, and the ones he thinks aren’t hot, and the ones he thinks are bimbos, and the ones …
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk