White House pretends Trump doesn't have a terrible record on hiring women

The outgoing White House press secretary falsely claimed on Sunday that Donald Trump has an “ALL FEMALE” senior communications team. He does not.

“President @realDonaldTrump already has an ALL FEMALE Senior White House Press Team,” Kayleigh McEnany tweeted, claiming that Vice President Mike Pence, first lady Melania Trump, and second lady Karen Pence do as well. “The completely DISCREDITED @washingtonpost once again reveals their blinding propagandist Fake News proclivities Downwards arrow,” she added.

She was responding to a Washington Post report that President-elect Joe Biden has selected seven women to be his top communications staff for his incoming administration. These women include communications director Kate Bedingfield, press secretary Jennifer Psaki, principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, deputy communications director Pili Tobar, vice presidential communications director Ashley Etienne, vice presidential chief spokesperson Symone Sanders, and communications director for the first lady Elizabeth E. Alexander

The Post quickly debunked McEnany’s false claims, noting that Trump’s team includes prominent men, such as deputy press secretary Judd Deere, deputy communications director Brian Morganstern, and vice presidential press secretary Devin O’Malley.

Unlike Biden’s highly diverse hires so far, Trump’s administration was largely dominated by white men.

Trump’s Cabinet, for example, has been almost entirely men from the beginning. Of the 23 people currently listed on the White House website Cabinet list, just four are female.

According to a 2018 analysis in The Atlantic, Trump appointed twice as many men as women over the first two years of his tenure — while women comprised 47% of the national workforce and 43% of the executive branch staff.

Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump and the Republican National Committee both claimed around that time that Trump had appointed record numbers of women in his administration.

“Under no metric has Trump appointed more women than any previous president. In fact, he currently lags behind Obama and Clinton and possibly George W. Bush in terms of the percentage of female appointments,” the Washington Post’s fact-checkers determined, awarding Lara Trump’s claim “four Pinocchios.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.