Thread: Trump gives young feminist the brush-off on equal pay and abortion

Trump gives young feminist the brush-off on equal pay and abortion: 'You're going to make the same IF you do as good a job – and I happen to be pro-life'

By David Martosko, Us Political Editor For Dailymail.com

Published: 12:27 EST, 12 October 2015 | Updated: 15:52 EST, 12 October 2015

Donald Trump gave a young feminist the back of his hand on Monday, dismissing her demand for absolute pay equity by insisting that women and men should earn the same salary only if their job performances match up.

'I want to get paid the same as a man, and I thinik you understand that,' the unidentified woman asked him during the Q&A portion of a bipartisan 'No Labels' event in New Hampshire.

'So if you become president, will a woman make the same as a man? And do I get to choose what I do with my body?'

Following applause from a crowd comprised largely of political centrists, Trump said: 'You're going to make the same if you do as good a job – and I happen to be pro-life. Okay? I'm pro-life.'

Scroll down for video

Trump took questions following a 30-minute speech at the Manchester, NH event organized by former Utah Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Connecticut Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman, the No Labels group's co-chairs.

The feminism questions, asked by a woman who appeared to be a college student, came in two parts.

'So maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you can prove me wrong,' she said at first. 'But I don't think you're a friend to woman [sic].'

Trump jumped in, joking with the audience of 2,000 that 'I knew I shouldn't have picked her.'

He rattled off his gender-equity bona fides, including what he said was a history of putting women at the top of mission-critical business enterprises.

'I respect women incredibly,' Trump said. 'I have had women working for me in positions that they've never worked in terms of construction, in terms of so many different jobs. I had a woman who was in charge of the building of Trump Tower, many years ago, before anybody would have even thought of it, and did a fantastic job.'

'I have given women more opportunity than I would say virtually anybody in the construction industry,' he said.

His young inquisitor, though, demanded a chance to ask a specific question, focusing on pay equity and abortion.

The New Hampshire audience wasn't a typical Trump-friendly crowd. Its rowdiest moment came earlier in the morning when a spandex-clad mascot, 'Mr. Problem Solver,' led the audience in call-and-response protest chants.

Organizers put together a day-long summit largely for political centrists with limited partisan appeal.

They applauded loudly when another questioner, Harvard graduate student Micaela Connery, asked Trump whethher 'divisive language' he deployed on the presidential campaign trail serves to 'undermine' his message.

Trump was having none of it.

'I went to Ivy League schools. I know what's divisive. I know what's not divisive, in all fairness,' he said.

'I don't want to necessarily be politically correct all the way down the line. ... I see politicians, they're afraid to say anything because it's not politically correct. And they know the answers, and they refuse to give 'em because they're afraid it's not going to be politically correct!'

'And I'm going to have to be who I am,' he said.

Unlike most of the Q&A participants who asked their questions from the audience, the young feminist made her pitch from right behind The Donald on the stage and declared that 'I don't think you're a friend to woman'

Trump suggested, however, that as the Republican field continues to thin out he will have fewer campaign wars of words with the survivors.

'Many are going to be dropping out, I think, very soon, if they're smart,' he said. 'They're going to be dropping out. Many. Too many people! Too many people!'

'When it becomes a different kind of a situation, you'll see I'm going to be much less divisive.'

Trump described himself as a 'counter-puncher' who seldom picks fights, a quality that he finds lacking in the White House.

'I don't think anybody in this room wants to have somebody that's not going to fight back,' he said.

'The problem we have in this country is we have people now who don't fight back. ... The country is being hurt tremendously by it.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz3oOg1MKnd
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook