Trump accidentally celebrates the new power of Democratic women

Democratic women surged to victory in the 2018 midterm elections, helping grow the number of women in Congress to historic highs and ultimately handing Democrats control of the House for the first time since 2010.

And Trump accidentally highlighted that historic win for Democratic women in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.

“No one has benefited more from our thriving economy than women, who have filled 58 percent of the newly created jobs last year,” Trump said.

That’s when Democratic women sitting in the chamber for the speech — most clad in white to honor women’s suffrage — began to stand and cheer, pointing at themselves to point out that they got some of those new jobs by either ousting Republicans or winning open-seat races in Congress in 2018.

A number of the women, including Rep. Ann McLane Kuster of New Hampshire and Julia Brownley of California, began raising the roof as their colleagues cheered.

Trump smirked as he watched the celebration unfolding.

“You weren’t supposed to do that,” he joked as he pointed at the Democratic women.

Eventually, Trump did offer congratulations to women for their historic congressional victories.

“All Americans can be proud that we have more women in the workforce than ever before,” Trump said. “And exactly one century after Congress passed the Constitutional Amendment giving women the right to vote, we also have more women serving in Congress than ever before.”

Yet Trump didn’t specifically mention Democratic women, who are actually the reason for the increase. In fact, Republicans saw the number of women in their House conference decline after the 2018 midterm elections.

And Trump’s mention of the progress women made in Congress rang pretty hollow after his petty refusal earlier in the speech to even congratulate Nancy Pelosi on winning back control of the Speaker’s gavel.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.