Republican congresswomen are a rare breed, making up only 14% of their caucus. But they are overrepresented when it comes to the Epstein files. GOP congresswomen comprise a whopping 75% of the House Republicans who have signed a discharge petition for the release of extensive document collected by the FBI during its investigation into the deceased sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. Granted, that large percentage is deceptive; only four GOP representatives have signed on to the measure. But that fact makes it all the more remarkable that they are willing to defy Donald Trump, as he rants on Truth Social that only “very bad, or stupid” Republicans would want to expose even more details of a child sex trafficking investigation with which he has been associated.
GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina all seem to have different motives for joining the entire Democratic caucus — along with Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie — in demanding the release of the Epstein files. Greene’s years of loud support for Trump have curdled into seeming animosity in recent months, after Trump reportedly blocked her from running for the Senate. Boebert has been relatively quiet about her calculus, but many have pointed out that her recent acrimonious divorce from a man who started dating her when she was 16 and he was 22 might be a factor. Mace’s motivations are frankly baffling, and seem to owe more to a long public history of troubling behavior and questionable mental health than anything else.
For years, Trump has pitched himself to GOP women as their “protector” who is eager to chivalrously shield womankind from a whole host of imaginary threats ranging from predatory immigrants to trans women in bathrooms. That billing has always been hard to square with the objective reality…
But Mace’s relationship to the Epstein files is a microcosm of a larger dilemma facing Republican women — both politicians and voters — as a whole. For years, Trump has pitched himself to GOP women as their “protector” who is eager to chivalrously shield womankind from a whole host of imaginary threats ranging from predatory immigrants to trans women in bathrooms. That billing has always been hard to square with the objective reality of Trump’s admitted and accused behavior, which includes bragging about grabbing women’s genitals without permission and being found liable for sexual assault by a civil jury in 2023.
Now, as more evidence from the Epstein investigation trickles into public view, it’s become all but impossible. In emails released Tuesday, the accused sex trafficker told a confidante that Trump “knew about the girls” and referred to the president as “dirty Donald.” Trump’s ham-fisted efforts to prevent the FBI documents from being released suggests that, as bad as the public evidence is of his association with Epstein, there could be even more damning stuff waiting in the wings.
Mace is no doubt reflecting the approach taken by most female voters and politicians who are trying to remain loyal to Trump: Self-delusion and/or outright lying. On she told reporters, “My heart and my pain is with the Epstein victims.” But then she insisted Trump has “been so good” to sexual assault victims and that “he’s protected women.”
It’s hard to believe that Mace, despite her well-documented erratic behavior, really believes this. Just this week, Trump tried to personally pressure Mace to remove her name from the discharge petition; surely she’s aware he has a self-interested reason for that. (During a recent hearing, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., suggested, for instance, that the FBI had collected incriminating photos of Trump with topless young women from Epstein’s home.) Mace also had a famous meltdown on ABC News in 2024 when she was asked about the civil verdict finding that Trump had sexually assaulted journalist E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s. Unable to deny that reality, Mace artlessly tried to deflect by claiming she herself is a victim, which only makes it worse that she’s supporting a man accused of abusing women.
That’s the paradox facing most women who support Trump. As vile as it is, for many Republican men, sexual abuse is an extension of their larger project of enforcing a strict gender hierarchy — and a good number are increasingly unapologetic about that. But GOP women still need to at least publicly object to rape, if only to preserve a basic sense of dignity. Instead, the Republican sales pitch to women is an age-old deal: In exchange for submission, they will get protection.
Trump hasn’t even bothered with subtext on this front. He’s been embarrassingly blatant in his pandering. “I am your protector,” he told women at a Pennsylvania rally in September 2024. “You will no longer be abandoned, lonely, or scared. You will no longer be in danger.”
But the deep vein of misogyny hidden under this benevolently sexist rhetoric was not hard to spot for women willing to see it. At a Wisconsin rally the next month, Trump framed his “protection” as a threat. “I want to protect the women of our country,” he insisted, dressed in a reflective jacket that made him look like a crossing guard. “I’m gonna do it whether the women like it or not.”
The dangers Trump has promised to safeguard women from are mostly or often entirely imaginary. From the moment he declared his candidacy for president in 2015, Trump has repeatedly cast undocumented immigrants as an unwashed mass of rapists, ignoring the fact that over 95% of sex offenders are American citizens. He has characterized trans women as a great danger, even though they are exponentially more likely to be victims than offenders. His list of fake threats is seemingly endless: “war zones” in cities, non-existent foreign invaders, supposedly greedy doctors who offer vaccines or abortions and — bafflingly — Tylenol. Trump has boosted QAnon, a conspiracy theory that inverts reality, insisting that it is feminist women and their allies who perpetuate sexual violence, and it’s Trump who is trying to stop them.
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Unfortunately, his pitch has worked. For Republican women, it’s easier to ignore the very real threats women face in favor of these fantasies. Trump distracts them from the fact that the assailant is far more likely to look like their friend or neighbor or husband — or the president — than he is some stranger lurking in the bushes. They ignore that Trump has explicitly framed sexual violence as a benefit of privilege, affirming in his deposition for the Carroll trial that, for men of status, sexual assault was basically a right for “the last million years.” He isn’t two-faced about sexual violence. He sees it as just fine for men who are white or rich or otherwise “deserve” it, but criminal if men he perceives as having lower status perpetrate it.
For MAGA women, the cognitive dissonance is resolved by agreeing to believe that the real threats are fake and the fake threats are real. This also allows them to avoid friction with the men in their lives, who tend to lash out at women who speak out about sexual violence, seeing it — correctly — as an attack on a larger slate of unfair privileges men enjoy because of their sex. It’s not surprising that the three Republican women who signed the discharge petition are divorced. That gives them a level of psychological independence that married Republican women almost never enjoy.
But while not married to literal husbands, all three women’s ambitions are still figuratively wed to Trump, at least for now. They understand that openly rejecting Trump, much less calling out his complicity with Epstein, is career suicide. The goal appears to wait him out. He’s not doing well at 79, so they are probably betting they won’t have to wait too long. (Then again, they should ask the first lady how well that logic worked out for her!) Greene has insisted that Trump is innocent of all wrongdoing and any statements or insinuations otherwise are “smears.” Mace, of course, bends over backwards to paint an image of Trump as a gentleman, one that doesn’t comport with reality.
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The question is, as more information emerges suggesting that Trump was aware — and perhaps approving — of his friend Epstein’s behavior, how long this act can last. In 2011, Epstein emailed Ghislaine Maxwell, his convicted accomplice, that Trump “spent hours at my house” with a victim and expressed surprise that investigators still hadn’t approached him. Previously, House Democrats released a birthday card Epstein allegedly received from Trump that contained a crude drawing and a message that read “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey,” and “may every day be another wonderful secret.” That’s a year after Trump told New York magazine, that Epstein “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
Unfortunately, most Republican women have a lot of practice at self-denial, so it may not be until Trump is no longer with us, if ever, that Mace and Greene let go of their delusions about his behavior. But — and I can’t believe I am writing this — it does seem that we must credit Boebert for having a little more self-worth than that. Even after she was drawn into a meeting on Wednesday attended by FBI director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, which itself seems like a threat, she refused to remove her name from the petition. Instead, Boebert tweeted, “I want to thank White House officials for meeting with me today. Together, we remain committed to ensuring transparency for the American people.”
I am sorry to report this is top-notch shade. Between that and Boebert’s eyebrows, she could look into doing drag as an alternative career path if being congresswoman doesn’t work out — if she weren’t a toxic homophobe. But hey, she figured out this much, so maybe there’s room for her to grow, unlike most Republican women.
