New York, Aug 27: Top women advisors in US President Donald Trump’s administration have hailed him for his strong support for working mothers, empowering and helping them shatter barriers.
Recalling the landmark achievement 100 years ago that granted women the right to vote, Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s former top advisor and one of his longest-serving aides, said “a woman in a leadership role can still seem novel. Not so for President Trump.”
Speaking at the third night of the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, Conway, 53, said for decades, Trump has “elevated women to senior positions in business and in government. He confides in and consults us, respects our opinions, and insists that we are on equal footing with the men.”
Citing her own example, she said Trump helped her “shatter a barrier in the world of politics by empowering me to manage his campaign to its successful conclusion. With the help of millions of Americans, our team defied the critics, the naysayers, conventional wisdom — and we won.”
Conway resigned abruptly this week and will leave the White House this month to focus on her children.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany talked about how Trump supported her – both as a new mother and as an American with a preexisting condition.
She spoke about her decision to get a preventative mastectomy in 2018 after she had tested positive for a genetic mutation that put her at high risk for chances of breast cancer.
“As I came out of anaesthesia, one of the first calls I received was from Ivanka Trump. As I recovered, my phone rang again. It was President Trump, calling to check on me. I was blown away. Here was the leader of the free world caring about my circumstance,” McEnany, 32, said.
She said that while she didn’t personally know the President initially, “I know him well now and I can tell you that this President stands by Americans with preexisting conditions.”
McEnany said she chose to work for Trump for her now 9-month old daughter.
“I want my daughter to grow up in President Donald Trump’s America. Choosing to have a preventative mastectomy was the hardest decision I have made. But supporting President Trump, who will protect my daughter and our children’s future, was the easiest,” she said.
The President’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump also described Trump as a champion of women empowerment, saying that in the Trump Organisation she saw the “countless” women executives who thrived there year after year.
Lara, 37, is married to Eric Trump, the second son of the President.
A former American television producer, she is an adviser to the Trump Campaign.
“Gender didn’t matter, what mattered was someone’s ability to get the job done,” Lara said, adding that she learned this directly when in 2016 her father-in-law asked her to help him win the state of North Carolina.
“Though I had no political experience, he believed in me — he knew I was capable even if I didn’t. So, it didn’t surprise me when President Donald Trump appointed so many women to senior-level positions in his administration,” Lara Trump said.
She was referring to US Ambassadors to the UN Nikki Haley and Kelly Craft, Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett, first woman to serve as CIA Director in the Agency’s 70-year history Gina Haspel, first African-American female director of the Fish and Wildlife service Aurelia Skipwith and several ambassadors.
Lara said under Trump’s leadership, women’s unemployment hit the lowest level since World War II and 4.3 million new jobs have been created for women – in 2019 alone, women took over 70 per cent of those new jobs. Female small business ownership remains at an all-time high and 600,000 women have been lifted out of poverty since Trump took office.
“He didn’t do these things to gain a vote or to check a box — he did them because they are the right things to do…He will uphold our values. He will build on the great American edict that our union will never be perfect until opportunity is equal for all — including, and especially, for women.” (PTI)
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