Donald Trump has long put on the aspirational persona of strongman and savior chosen by God, a charade not unlike those performed by many authoritarians and autocrats before him. And as has also been the case throughout history, gullible conservatives eat it up: His male fans are practically salivating over his masculine virility.

In the wake of his attempted assassination, this persona has taken on exaggerated form–and demands the help of the women around him. A strongman needs to display not just male strength, but divine consecration, as strong men must exist by the grace of God. A strongman also needs to exist for the protection of fragile women. Trump and the Trump women all know their roles in this performance.

Both Trump’s wife Melania and his daughter Ivanka have released statements thanking God and law enforcement for his survival. Melania’s well-meaning but somewhat bizarre two-page ode was full of flowery prose and attempts at loftiness that read less like the former first lady and more like an AI chatbot’s imitation. It’s easy to parse the statement’s odd language, and ungenerous to disparage the rare effort from the Trump team to appeal to decency, empathy and kindness. But more interesting is its overall aim: To attribute to Melania a soft voice that emphasizes Trump’s humanity—and does the feminized work of encouraging love, family, and reconciliation.

Ivanka, more of the quintessential successful daughter than the subservient wife, also leaned into gratitude, invoking her deceased mother and even suggesting Ivana Trump had some hand in protecting Trump.

This gentle path of thankfulness and reconciliation is not one the former president has taken himself, even while he encourages the country to “UNITE.” Trump’s post-shooting social media posts are far from his most vitriolic, perhaps because he rightly senses that this moment is one in which the wind........

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