Tensions are rising as election day approaches and anything a candidate or even their family does, says or thinks is scrutinized. Eric Trump released a map on Oct. 12 depicting the idea of his father, Donald Trump winning the election if the only people to vote were men. The map was color-coded between red, for Donald Trump, and blue, for Hillary Clinton. The map depicted an overwhelming amount of states filled in with red, expressing that Donald Trump would win the electoral vote for the majority of states if women abstained from voting. While the red states took up more than 50 percent of the United States map, Clinton had a small amount of states.

The map that was released by Eric Trump reinforced the attitude that Donald Trump has toward women. Donald Trump’s behavior toward women is a prominent issue in his campaign. The choice for Eric Trump to release this segregating map that isolates the female population does not help his father’s case. It was not a smart strategy to create a map in order to portray his father’s success throughout his journey to voting day. The only success that came from the male dominated map was continuous resistance from the female population.

       

According to the United States Census Bureau, as of July 2014, about 162 million women make up the United States population, while 157 million are males. Also, 43 percent of women reported voting in the 2012 election, compared to the 40.8 percent of men who reported voting. Women may strongly support Clinton and Donald Trump, but Eric Trump’s map reassures Clinton supporters of their decision. The depiction on the aforementioned infographic was a poor decision on Eric Trump’s part because it is ignorant to the fact that women hold the majority of votes within an election. It also stirs up more frustration for the female voter and enhances the thought that the Donald Trump campaign cares about the male population over the female one.

Junior Sarah McHale, a politics major, stated, “It was a desperate and misguided attempt to dissuade voters from recognizing the fact that [Donald Trump’s] chances are all but lost. Sending out a map of what the results would be like if only men voted may give a glimmer of hope for the Trump campaign and his supporters, but in reality, the scenario is completely unrealistic, offensive and false.” Rather than creating a map specifically catered to men, a better strategy toward emphasizing the positives within the campaign could be a graph expressing the amount of supporters that Donald Trump gained over his campaigning months, both male and female. By making himself seem like a “winner” in the eyes of his male supporters, it allows women to find another reason to not only go out and vote, but to go out and vote against him.

A Buzzfeed article, “Eric Trump Used An ‘If Only Men Voted’ Map To Convince Supporters His Dad Has ‘Momentum’” did a great job of compiling tweets and comments from the public. The tweets followed a similar trend of the public not being supportive about the map. Tweets such as, “Dream on, Eric Trump. This map is if women didn’t vote, but we will. Oh yes, women will vote, but not for Trump” expressed disappointment and awareness of Donald Trump’s unrealistic hope of men being the only ones to vote. Twitter users, along with myself, were not only disappointed by Eric Trump’s actions, but are now more confident in the United States being led by Clinton.

While Eric Trump continues to spread unrealistic thoughts, dreams and goals in hopes of bettering his father’s chances, women are preparing themselves for voting day. It is not a surprise that Eric Trump followed his father’s trend of showing more concern for men over women, but the only benefit of the publication of this map is the fact that it can bring more female voters over to support Clinton.

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