Trump has long been criticized for his treatment of women. Some of his closest allies seek to present a different vision

By Arit John, CNN

(CNN) — When Sarah Huckabee Sanders faced what she described as “relentless attacks from the left,” it was former President Donald Trump who comforted her, she said.

Trump attorney Alina Habba described the Republican nominee as her “friend.”

And Kai Trump, his oldest grandchild, made a surprise appearance to share “the side of my grandpa that people don’t often see.”

A common theme rang through speeches from women at this year’s Republican National Convention: Despite how Trump’s public treatment of women may seem to some, he is an advocate for them behind closed doors.

In speech after speech in Milwaukee this week, women spoke of quiet moments when they said Trump comforted them in the wake of Democratic attacks or media criticism, advocated for them professionally or showed compassion or familial care. They described him as a friend and a loving father and grandfather in the moments people don’t see.

Trump has long been known for the brash, even vulgar way he sometimes speaks about women. He has also been dogged by allegations about sexual misconduct and extramarital affairs. Accusations of sexism plagued his 2016 presidential campaign, a race he won despite the October release of a video in which he bragged about being able to grab women by their genitals because he’s a celebrity.

In 2023, a civil court found Trump liable of sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s. The former president was later ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages for his defamatory statements disparaging Carroll and denying her rape allegations.

Speeches from women, including his family members and people who have worked for him, fit into a broader effort at the convention to soften his public image.

“I was insulted as a guest at the White House Correspondents Dinner, my family was denied service and kicked out of a restaurant, and a parent at my 3-year-old son’s preschool spit on my car,” Sanders, who served as one of Trump’s White House press secretaries, said during her Tuesday night address. “And in those moments, it was President Trump who defended me.”

Sanders, now the governor of Arkansas, said at one point the former president pulled her aside and told her, “Sarah, you’re smart, you’re beautiful, you’re tough, and they attack you because you’re good at your job.”

Habba, one of Trump’s lawyers, said she wanted to take the audience “behind the headlines” to reveal “his character, his kindness” and his commitment to the country.

“President Trump championed my journey, empowering me to be who I became today,” Habba said.

Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager and White House senior counselor, praised the former president for elevating women to key roles in his campaign and administration.

“He saw something in me and the other working moms that perhaps we did not see in ourselves,” Conway said.

Family members, from his granddaughter – who said the former president bragged to friends when she made the honor roll – to his son’s partners shared their personal experiences with him.

“I know what you hear out there about Donald Trump,” Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law and the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, said in her speech. “But when I look at Donald Trump, I see a wonderful father, father-in-law and, of course, grandfather to my two young children, Luke and Carolina.”

History of sexism and misconduct allegations

The effort to reframe Trump’s treatment of women was part of a larger push to soften the former president’s image in the wake of the assassination attempt last weekend.

“The media’s negative portrayal of President Trump and his treatment of women is entirely false,” Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, said in a statement. “President Trump is loved by millions of women across the country, and those who know him personally, myself included, will tell you he’s supportive, generous, and kind.”

Leavitt added that during Trump’s first term he supported policies such as expanding access to paid family leave and child care and that he would do so again.

Broadening the former president’s appeal to women will be key in November. Biden’s success in swing states in 2020 is attributable in part to his stronger support among women turned off by Trump’s brashness. In 2020, Biden won 57% of women, compared with 42% who backed Trump, according to CNN exit polls.

But it’s not clear whether praise of the former president’s private behavior will impact how people perceive years of his public behavior. Trump had faced allegations of sexism since he sought the Republican nomination in 2016.

During a 2015 GOP primary debate, moderator Megyn Kelly asked then-candidate Trump about his history of referring to women he disagreed with as “fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.” He later blasted Kelly and said she had “blood coming out of her wherever.”

During that first campaign, he insinuated that both Carly Fiorina, one of his Republican opponents, and the wife of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, another 2016 rival, were unattractive.

And in the final weeks of that election, old Access Hollywood footage of him bragging about being able to kiss women and grab them by their genitals prompted mass condemnation from members of his own party.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his 2016 Democratic opponent, argued that Trump’s past treatment of women made him unfit to be president.

“When I think about what we now know about Donald Trump and what he has been doing for 30 years, he sure had spent a lot of time demeaning, degrading, insulting and assaulting women,” Clinton said at a Florida rally days before the election.

Clinton’s loss, and fears over what a Trump presidency would entail, prompted global Women’s March protests.

Since then, other parts of his background have been scrutinized. Earlier this year, Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up an alleged extramarital affair with a porn star. And then there is Carroll’s allegation that Trump sexually abused her in a luxury department store dressing room in the spring of 1996. Trump faced no jail time in the civil trial, but he was ordered to pay $88 million total for defamation.

Trump has denied the affair at the center of the hush money case and denied assaulting Carroll.

The former president has also denied about a dozen other sexual misconduct allegations, including groping and sexual harassment, that took place before he took office. In 2017, Trump called the claims “fake news.”

Sanders, the White House press secretary at the time, was asked whether the White House’s official position was that all the women were lying.

“Yeah, we have been clear on that from the beginning, and the president has spoken on it,” she said at an October 2017 press briefing.

For much of the 2024 campaign, Democrats have focused their criticisms of Trump on his policies, specifically his appointment of Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn federal abortion protections. But as President Joe Biden has faced increased pressure within his own party to step aside, he has started to broaden his attacks. During a rally in Detroit earlier this month, Biden referenced both the hush money case and the civil case involving Carroll.

“Mr. Trump raped her,” Biden said, referencing what the judge in the Carroll case wrote.

In Milwaukee, however, Trump’s criminal cases were framed as further evidence of persecution he’s suffered for his supporters.

“Every attack on President Trump only strengthens our movement,” said Habba, who represented Trump in the Carroll defamation suit. “Sham indictments and baseless allegations will not deter us, because the only crime President Trump has committed is loving America.”

This headline has been updated.

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