Trump’s ‘Women Will Be Happy’ Promise Sparks Warnings of Authoritarianism
Photo Credit: Getty Images
On Sunday’s episode of MSNBC’s The Weekend, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on authoritarianism and professor of history at New York University, weighed in on Donald Trump’s recent Truth Social post directed at women. In his typical all-caps style, the former president declared, “WOMEN WILL BE HAPPY, HEALTHY, CONFIDENT AND FREE!” He went on to add, “YOU WILL NO LONGER BE THINKING ABOUT ABORTION, BECAUSE IT IS NOW WHERE IT ALWAYS HAD TO BE, WITH THE STATES, AND A VOTE OF THE PEOPLE.”
Co-host Michael Steele, a former Republican National Committee Chair, found Trump’s words troubling and turned to Ben-Ghiat for analysis. “When Donald Trump says, ‘Women will be happy, healthy, confident, and free; you will no longer be thinking about abortion,’ to me that is dear leader speak. That is nationalism speak,” Steele observed, calling attention to the implications of Trump’s rhetoric.
Ben-Ghiat echoed Steele’s concerns, explaining how Trump’s comments fit into a broader authoritarian narrative. “It sends a chill down my spine when Donald Trump says women won’t have to think about abortion anymore because he also said something similar about voting when he talked to a group of evangelicals,” she said. “He said after this election, you will not have to vote anymore, as if it is a kind of burden.”
According to Ben-Ghiat, such statements are classic markers of authoritarianism, where the leader promises to take away the burden of decision-making from citizens. “This is fascist talk, where the leader says, ‘I will free you from all decision-making. Just trust in me and you will not have to worry about any problems anymore.'”
She elaborated on the dangers of this mindset, connecting it to authoritarian control over women’s bodies. “This goes back to fascism. A woman’s body becomes a tool of the state—the state has a right to decide what she does with her body,” Ben-Ghiat explained. She tied this idea to the Great Replacement Theory, where women are seen as instruments to produce the “right kind of babies” for the nation.
Ben-Ghiat warned that Trump’s rhetoric signals a dangerous trend, one that seeks to remove individual freedoms and place decision-making in the hands of an authoritarian leader. The comments reflect not only Trump’s views on abortion but also a broader, troubling vision for the future of women’s rights in America.
