Trump suddenly demands women's suffrage monument

Trump baselessly claimed in pair of tweets on Friday afternoon that he has “done more for WOMEN than just about any President in HISTORY!” and urged the immediate passage of a bill creating a women’s suffrage monument in Washington, D.C., on Friday.

“As we celebrate the 100th Anniversary of women’s voting rights, we should build a BEAUTIFUL STATUE in Washington D.C. to honor the many brave women who made this possible for our GREAT COUNTRY… Congress should send me H.R.473 ASAP and make this happen! It will INSPIRE all women to continue being bold and brave in achieving their DREAMS!” he wrote

Trump was referring to a bill, filed last September by Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO), to authorize the Every Word We Utter Monument. The bill has been stuck in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s Republican-controlled Senate for nearly six months.

If enacted, the bill would “establish a commemorative work on Federal land in the District of Columbia and its environs to commemorate the women’s suffrage movement and the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution,” according to its text.

The legislation, which was co-sponsored by some Republican members, passed in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives in February on a voice vote, with at least two-thirds of the members present voting in favor.

But like hundreds of other pieces of legislation passed in the House, it has been stuck in the GOP Senate since.

A spokesperson for McConnell (R-KY) did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the bill’s future.

Instead of bringing up this and other bills that passed the House with both Democratic and Republican support, McConnell has instead spent most of the Senate’s time focusing on confirming Donald Trump’s nominees to judgeships and executive branch positions and sent senators home for lengthy recesses.

Trump has done little to advance women’s rights. He has spent the past four years belittling women and fighting against equal pay, reproductive choice, and the #MeToo movement.

And while the 19th Amendment states that “citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex,” its ratification in 1920 did not guarantee all women the right to vote. Many Native, Black, Asian, and Latinx women remained disenfranchised for decades to come — a detail Trump has never mentioned.

Published with permission of the American Independent Foundation.