Trump says he'll 'protect women' whether they 'like it or not'

NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump has stirred fresh controversy by vowing to “protect women” whether they “like it or not” as a wide gender gap looms in the White House race with Kamala Harris.

Admitting his own advisers warned him to avoid the insensitive language, Trump insisted at a rally that he won’t back down on his offensive rhetoric about women or his policy stances on issues like immigration or abortion rights.

“They said, ‘It’s just inapppropriate for you to say,'” Trump told a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Wednesday night. “I said, ‘Well, I’m gonna do it whether the women like it or not. I’m gonna protect them.’”

Harris hit back Thursday by reminding female voters that Trump supports bans on abortion, a key issue that the Democratic campaign believes is driving her support among women.

“It actually is very offensive to woman (and) their right to make decisions about their own body,” Harris said before leaving on a campaign swing through battleground Arizona and Nevada. “It’s just the latest in a series of reveals by the former president of what he thinks about women.”

The controversy has erupted in the final days of a race that polls say is a toss up and in which the gap between male and female voters has never been wider.

Most polls show Harris leading Trump by about 15% among women voters nationwide while he leads by nearly the same margin among men. The gender gap is even wider among young voters.

Women are also casting early votes at a much faster pace than men, although analysts warn against putting too much weight on early voting figures.

Trump’s campaign has stressed reaching out to men with appearances on media outlets like Joe Rogan’s podcast, which has a huge following among young men. Harris has struck a more inclusive tone, and says she is pushing a message of unity across racial, gender and political party lines.

Given Trump’s well-documented problems with women voters, even Republicans suggest he should avoid getting further under their skin in the closing days of the campaign as undecided voters are making up their minds.

Nikki Haley, the GOP primary rival of Trump who later endorsed him, said the former president was making a huge unforced error by tripling down on the “bromance” appeal to male voters.

She says she’s “on standby” to campaign for Trump, but he appears to be uninterested in enlisting her public support.

“I’m gonna ask all of you to take the emotion out of this election,” Haley told voters Wednesday at a campaign appearance backing a Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania. “That’s our job: it’s about the next generation.”

Many women say the damage has been done, and Trump will learn their verdict at the ballot box on Tuesday.

“That comment is just infuriating,” former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, a moderate Republican who is backing Harris, said on CNN. “It’s extremely offensive and it will swing votes.”