Republican frontrunner Donald Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, has been dragged into the political mudslinging in the run-up to the US elections by Super PAC ‘Make America Awesome’, in an attack ad – or rather, an attack meme – on the Republican presidential candidate hopeful.
The ad featured a nude image of Melania from a 2000 GQ photoshoot, essentially maligning her suitability as First Lady should Trump win the Presidency, and asking voters to support Ted Cruz.
To be clear, neither Ted Cruz nor his campaign were responsible for the ad. But faced with a veritable smorgasbord of Trump’s shortcomings – from numerous gaffes, to foreign policy blunders, to incitement to violence – it is truly baffling that slut-shaming his wife is the tactic Cruz supporters decided to go with.
To the surprise of precisely no one, Trump responded with some casual sexism of his own, tweeting:
Because nothing says “presidential candidate” like comparing and belittling wives based on physical appearance.
In a race where Trump’s biggest vulnerability may very well be his unpopularity with women, stunts like these are probably not going to help.
Nor is this episode likely to give Cruz any traction with the female demographic when there is a strong female candidate in Hillary Clinton to contend with.
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