‘Fat.’ ‘Dog.’ ‘No longer a 10.’ How Trump talks about women

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump referred to pornographic film actress Stephanie Clifford as “Horseface” in a tweet this week, adding her to a long list of women he has attacked by demeaning their looks, mocking their bodily functions or comparing them to animals.

Trump’s verbal assault came as he gloated about a federal judge’s decision to dismiss a defamation suit filed by Clifford, who is known professionally as Stormy Daniels. Clifford’s lawyer responded by calling the president “a disgusting misogynist.” Clifford — who was paid $130,000 through Trump’s former lawyer to buy her silence about sex she said she had with Trump — replied on Twitter by using the nickname “Tiny” for the president.

Trump’s tweet landed in the final days of a congressional election cycle in which Republican candidates are already struggling to woo female voters. The president’s language is unlikely to be helpful to them.

Although the president’s comment was striking about Clifford, who has graphically described Trump’s genitals in a recent memoir, it was hardly unique.

Trump has accused women of having “fat, ugly” faces and of repelling voters because of their looks. He called one woman a “crazed, crying lowlife” and said another was a “dog” who had the “face of a pig.” He said Hillary Clinton’s bathroom break during a 2015 presidential debate was “too disgusting” to talk about. He has repeatedly mocked women for being overweight.

“This rhetoric is the kind of thing that has turned off college-educated Republican women who voted for Trump in 2016, but have fallen away,” said Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Calling the president’s comment “adolescent,” Walsh said “you cannot continue to be a party in power if the voters that you are appealing to are white men over the age of 60.”

Trump’s turn toward juvenile mockery illustrates why even those Republicans who were buoyed by the bounce they received in the aftermath of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination were still cautious in their midterm forecasts: One can never guess when this president will veer off message, as he did

JEENAH MOON / THE NEW YORK TIMES Stephanie Clifford, the porn star better known as Stormy Daniels, speaks to reporters outside a federal courthouse April 16 in New York. President Donald Trump has a history of attacking women who have made accuations against him, like Clifford, and mocking their bodily functions, demeaning their looks or comparing them to animals. Trump referred to Clifford as “Horseface” in a tweet.