By Jill Colvin and Jonathan J. Cooper, Associated Press

GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) — Donald Trump He says he will be the “protector” of women whether they like it or not.

She campaigns with men who use sexist and vulgar language. She expressed concern at the idea that women could vote differently than their husbands.

And the former Republican president suggested: Democrat Kamala HarrisTrying to become the first woman to win the White House, she will be “overwhelmed” and “melt down” in the face of male authoritarian leaders whom she considers harsh.

In the final days of his campaign, Trump remained fixated on a gendered worldview that his critics described as outdated and patriarchal; but he acknowledges that some of that language has gotten him “in a lot of trouble” with a significant group of voters.

Trump and some of his prominent allies they openly peddled sexism.

At an event with the Republican presidential candidate, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson likened Trump to an angry father showing tough love to a “bad little girl” who, in Carlson’s words, “needs a severe beating.”

Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point, who played a key role in the campaign’s get-out-the-vote operation. The man who voted against Trump “not a man.” Kirk also said that wives who secretly vote for Harris are “hurting their husbands,” describing a man who is “probably working his tail off so he can go live a nice life and provide for the family.”

On Saturday night, Trump laughed at a crude joke about Harris, nearly a week after he made it. Speaker at Madison Square Garden rally He suggested the vice president was like a prostitute controlled by “pimp handlers.” As Trump repeated his claim, Without any evidence that Harris had lied about working at McDonald’s in his youth, someone in the crowd shouted, “He worked around the corner.”

Trump laughed, looked around, and pointed to part of the crowd.

“This place is amazing,” he said, cheering. “Remember, other people say this. “I’m not.”

Trump has faced a persistent gender divide since Harris entered the race in July. Women are more likely to say they support Harris than Trump, by a double-digit margin in some polls.

That could be enough to prove decisive in what both sides expect to be an extremely close race that ends on Tuesday.

Women generally vote at higher rates than men. They made up 53% of voters in 2020, according to AP VoteCast. Of the approximately 67.2 million Americans who have already voted, about 53% are women and 44% are men, according to political data firm TargetSmart.

“This is not the time for them to overly masculinize this brotherhood thing,” he said nikki haleyHe is competing with Trump for the GOP nomination this year, he said in a recent interview on Fox News. “Women will vote. They care about how they are spoken to. They also care about the issues.”

Trump did not campaign with Haley, who was ambassador to the UN during his administration, despite offers to appear with him.

Trump is aggressively courting men. Trump’s team spent months specifically reaching out to young men. a series of interviews about popular male-centered podcasts and appearances at football games and mixed martial arts fights. His campaign was dominated by machismo; such as when former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan ripped his shirt while taking the stage at the Republican National Convention and later at a Madison Square Garden rally.

The song “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World” is often played at Trump’s events.

Trump was always expected to face difficulties with women this year Nominate three Supreme Court justices Roe v. Wade, who voted to overturn the case, ending the constitutionally guaranteed right to abortion and sparking a wave of restrictions in Republican-led states.

But efforts to win women back have mostly failed.

Speaking in Gastonia, North Carolina, on Saturday, at the first of nearly a dozen rallies on the final weekend of the race, Trump acknowledged that he received backlash for saying he would “protect” women as president. Yet he kept repeating the same phrase, insisting that women loved him and that he was right.

“I believe women should be protected. Men, children, everyone should be. But women need to be protected when they’re home in the suburbs,” she said. “When you’re alone in your house and you’re facing a monster that’s gotten out of prison and you’re facing six charges for killing six different people, I think Trump You prefer.”

Trump’s campaign believes his focus on crime and illegal immigration will help him win over “safety moms.” At his rallies, he included stories of mothers whose children were killed by people who were in the United States illegally. Among them is Alexis Nungaray, whose 12-year-old daughter Jocelyn was killed by two suspected Venezuelan gang members.

The campaign also includes Trump’s Frequent condemnation of transgender rights continues its dominance.

On Saturday in Salem, Virginia, Trump brought on stage female athletes from Roanoke College; where a transgender woman withdrew her request to join the women’s swim team and later withdrew that request.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt defended Trump’s approach in a statement. “Women deserve a President who will secure our nation’s borders, remove violent criminals from our neighborhoods, and build an economy that helps our families thrive, and that’s exactly what President Trump will do,” she said.

Many people who attended his rallies said they welcomed Trump’s promise to be a “protector.”

“I want protection. So we all are, right? We don’t want to feel like we’re not protected,” said Kim Saunders, a 52-year-old small business owner who lives in Williamsburg, Virginia. “This is a very scary feeling. So it makes me feel really good to have someone protecting me and a man protecting me.”

He said he couldn’t understand why women would support Harris, but the reason men were attracted to Trump was because “he’s the alpha male.” And for me, I love the alpha male. I grew up with an alpha male father.

Meanwhile, Harris seized By emphasizing Trump’s words in speeches and online.

The vice president has tried to address his side of the gender gap by appearing on podcasts and doing interviews aimed specifically at Black men, a traditionally Democratic constituency where Trump has made inroads. In an interview with CNN on Saturday, she was asked if she believed women would make a difference in this election.

“I believe all Americans can make a difference. “And I plan to be the president of all Americans,” he said.