Belittling women is the new normal? I hope not!

There’s a point in every political era where a country has to decide what it’s willing to normalize. And somehow, in America, we’ve spent nearly a decade pretending that Donald Trump’s endless stream of insults — the “piggy,” the “nasty woman,” the “horseface,” the “slob,” the “dog,” the “low-IQ,” the childish nicknames — are just part of the show. A sideshow. A quirk. A “Trump being Trump” moment.

But at a certain point, you have to stop calling it theatrics and name it for what it is: a pattern. A lifelong pattern of belittling women, smearing opponents, and dragging public discourse into the gutter because he can’t win an argument any other way.

This is a man who spent his rise to power mocking women’s bodies, sneering at female journalists, degrading female politicians, attacking marginalized people, and calling anyone who challenged him “weak,” “ugly,” or “stupid.” He did it in tabloids, he did it on television, he did it on Twitter, and now he does it on the world stage. It’s not an accident. It’s a strategy. A tactic. A brand.

But here’s the part he never sees coming: every time he fires off a new “piggy,” the country isn’t thinking about the person he’s trying to insult — they’re thinking about him. And the long, messy trail of headlines, quotes, scandals, lawsuits, and photos that follow him like a storm cloud he can’t outrun.

The internet doesn’t forget.

It doesn’t forget the recordings, the bragging, the comments about women “bleeding from wherever,” the body-shaming, the cruelty, the obsession with humiliating anyone who stands up to him.

It doesn’t forget who he posed with in the ’90s, who he called a “terrific guy,” who he socialized with before the world learned the truth.

It doesn’t forget the sudden backtracking once public outrage finally caught up.
And it certainly doesn’t forget that every time he tries to paint someone else as immoral or disgraceful, it’s his own archives that slam back into the spotlight.
But the biggest problem isn’t the hypocrisy.

It’s the exhaustion.

Because while he clings to schoolyard insults as if they’re a governing philosophy, Americans are living through economic anxiety, skyrocketing costs, brutal cuts to social programs, collapsing safety nets, and a daily sense of uncertainty about the future.

People are fighting to keep a roof over their heads, to afford medication, to keep their kids safe in school — and the man who wants the White House back is still stuck in the same ugly tactics he used on reality TV.

At some point, a country has to say: enough is enough.

Enough with the misogyny.
Enough with the bullying.
Enough with the cheap insults that distract from real suffering.

Enough with a political culture warped around one man’s insecurities and his need to tear others down.

Trump’s insults aren’t “edgy.” They’re not “tough.” They’re not “authentic.”
They’re the same tired script he’s been recycling for decades — a script meant to make everyone smaller so he can feel bigger.

And the truth is, the louder he tries to demean others, the clearer the nation sees the outline of his own past — with all its shadows, scandals, and consequences that no amount of name-calling can erase.

Americans deserve better than a man who can’t speak without demeaning someone.

They deserve leadership rooted in reality, not ridicule.
And the era of shrugging and saying “that’s just Trump” is long, long over.

Julie Bolejack, MBA

JulieBolejack.com