Donald Trump, feminist icon?

Cast your mind back eight years. The day after Donald Trump’s first inauguration, hundreds of thousands of women marched on Washington in opposition to the incoming president. Adorned in pink ‘pussy’ hats, they were joined by protesters in London, Sydney, Zurich and at least 30 other American cities. As I argued at the time, beyond expressing general distaste for the incoming administration the precise aims of this movement were never particularly clear. But it was feminism and therefore good.

Yet in his second inaugural address last night, Trump did more for women’s rights than all of these cutesy hat-knitters put together. ‘As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,’ declared the new President. In just this one sentence, he showed himself to be more of a feminist than the entire sanctimonious sisterhood of Handmaid’s Tale cos-players.