“I will protect you,” Trump promised on the campaign trail with a wink and a smile and a clenched fist.

How many abused women have heard those exact words from their abuser, even as they double over in pain from bruised ribs.

Now the same man who promised to “protect” women is minimizing domestic violence, characterizing it as “just a little fight with the wife.” A little fight with the little woman is just a matter to resolve at home.

No crime here.

Without a hint of irony, this serial sexual predator and abuser named Donlad Trump told women, “I will make you safe.” Just like your garden-variety domestic violence perpetrator, who lies, dominates, manipulates, and gaslights.

No one has put women and their rights in more danger. Instilled more fear and hopelessness into their lives than you.

In his arrogance, he is a domestic abuser for all of us.

Who Doesn’t Get a Kick out of Wife Beating?

Trump’s insensitivity and ignorance harken back to a time when domestic violence was not spoken about.  When it was, it was often the subject of gags and comedy routines up there with mother-in-law jokes and lousy women drivers.

Whether in cartoons or advertising, mid-century America was a climate where media images and social practices supported and condoned domestic abuse by normalizing, trivializing, and romanticizing male violence against women.

For some mid-century men, beating your wife was not only condoned but provided an endless source of belly laughs and good-natured guffaws.

What red-blooded all-American man in 1957 wouldn’t be tickled to proudly hang this “wife beaters permit” on his rumpus room or home workshop next to his Stanley hammer and crowbar?

A real knee slapper, this Wife Beaters Permit entitles the lucky bearer to take his proper place as King of the household whenever m’ lady starts to nag or scold. As the entitled one, you are to assert yourself “by crowning your Queen,” ( that hammer might come in mighty handy), then “parade about with a star-spanking banner (scars and stripes)” qualifying the brute to join the “Men’s Revolution”

The only lesson to learn here is that domestic violence is nothing to laugh at, not now, not ever!