Mark Cuban's Trump women remark sparks MAGA rage: "Profoundly ...
Mark Cuban, a supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris, is being ripped by the Trump campaign after saying the former president is never surrounded by "strong, intelligent women."
The comments were made during Thursday's episode of ABC's The View after co-host and former Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin asked the entrepreneur his thoughts on former President Donald Trump not asking ex-South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to help him reach women voters.
"I mean...it will put [Harris] over the edge with Nikki Haley supporters," Cuban said. "Donald Trump, you never see him around strong, intelligent women. Ever. It's just that simple. They're intimidating to him. He doesn't like to be challenged by them."
Cuban added that Haley, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, will challenge Trump "on his nonsense with reproductive rights and how he sees and treats and talks about women."
The comment evoked outrage from people close to Trump's MAGA movement. The former president's campaign account on X, formerly Twitter, called Cuban's statement "disgusting," adding, "They're now openly attacking the millions of strong, intelligent women fighting alongside President Trump every day to Make America Great Again."
Trump released his own statement to his Truth Social account, writing that Cuban is "a really dumb guy."
"Actually, he is very wrong, I surround myself with the strongest of women - With the understanding that ALL women are great, whether strong or not strong," Trump said. "This guy is such a fool."
Kayleigh McEnany, Trump's former White House press secretary, found Cuban's statement "profoundly offensive."
"I worked for Donald Trump," McEnany said during an appearance on Fox News. "I consider myself a strong woman. I consider those around me strong women."
Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a close ally of Trump, released a video message on Thursday responding to Cuban's comment, which featured her doing pull-ups on a gym setup.
"Here's the problem with Mark Cuban. He suffers from low testosterone...He's actually intimidated by strong, intelligent women like me," Greene said.
Newsweek reached out to Harris' campaign via email for comment on Thursday.
Cuban's statement comes on the heels of President Joe Biden's gaffe during a Voto Latino call earlier this week, in which he referred to Trump's supporters as "garbage."
Both the president and the White House have said that Biden was referring to the "hateful rhetoric coming out of the Madison Square Garden rally" and not voters who back Trump. Harris told reporters on Wednesday that she "strongly" disagrees "with any criticism of people based on who they vote for."
Speakers at Trump's rally made inflammatory and racist statements about Latinos, Black people, and other minority groups on Sunday, including a comedian calling Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage."
Sexist remarks were also hurled toward Harris. Grant Cardone, a businessman and Trump supporter, referred to the vice president during his speech, saying, "Her and her pimp handlers will destroy our country."
Polls have shown that Trump is trailing behind his Democratic opponent among women. In a Reuters/Ipsos survey released Wednesday, Harris led with women voters, who turn out at higher rates than men, 50 percent to 38 percent. In the same poll conducted in October 2020, Trump was trailing then-Democratic nominee, President Joe Biden, by just 5 points among women voters.
Haley, who ran for the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, has been critical of Trump's message to women on several occasions. While speaking with Fox News' Bret Baier Tuesday evening, she said that Trump's campaign was making a mistake "with this bromance thing they've got going on," adding that it "makes women uncomfortable."
"You've got affiliated PACs that are doing commercials about calling [Vice President Kamala Harris] the 'C' word," said Haley, referring to a recent ad by Elon Musk's political action committee. "You had speakers at Madison Square Garden referring to her and her 'pimps.' That is not the way to win women."
Haley also said on Tuesday that she is "on standby" to campaign for Trump. In July, she endorsed Trump for president while speaking at the Republican National Convention.
"They are very aware that we are on standby; they know that we would be there to help," Haley told Baier. "We are on the same team...It is their campaign's decision on what he needs in these last final days. It does not bother me at all."
Update 10/31/24, 7:38 p.m. ET: This article was updated with a statement from former President Donald Trump.
