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Lara Trump says women who marched don’t know why they’re ‘so anti-Trump’

ANALYSIS | It probably won’t help Republicans win over female voters

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January 24, 2018 at 1:34 p.m. EST

Analysis by The Washington Post’s Eugene Scott.

Lara Trump, President Trump’s daughter-in-law, recently made an appearance on Fox News to discuss Women’s March events held worldwide this past weekend.

“It was more of a hateful, anti-Trump protest, which I think is really sad because this president has done so much for women,” Lara Trump told the “Fox & Friends” hosts. “Women’s unemployment is at a 17-year low right now. And, yet, these women out there are so anti-Trump. And I don’t even think they know why. They just think that’s the thing to do.”

But the thousands of women — and men — who participated in marches had reasons: They came to protest a wide variety of issues, including sexual assault, women’s health issues and immigration. So, to say they don’t know why they protested is a potentially risky move for an administration that already has high disapproval ratings with women.

According to the latest Washington Post-ABC poll, 65 percent of women disapprove of Trump’s job performance.

  • Nearly 7 in 10 women — 66 percent — say Trump has not accomplished enough during his first year in office.
  • Only 15 percent of women say that Trump’s actions have helped them and their family in the past year.
  • About a third — 34 percent — of women think that the Trump administration deserves a great deal/good amount of credit for the country’s current economic success.

Leaders at the Republican National Committee are aware that the GOP is struggling with women. Last month, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel presented a memo to the White House detailing the party’s collapse with female voters, according to Politico.

This could obviously change. The midterm elections are months away, and Trump and Republican lawmakers could make policy changes that win over more women voters. And there are multiple factors that go into why women vote for or against a candidate.

But misrepresenting some women’s viewpoints and criticizing how they have expressed their issues with the current White House is unlikely to be an effective way to get more women on the Trump train.