What were the most notable examples of Donald Trump's derogatory comments towards women during the 2016 presidential campaign?

1. A watershed moment: “Grab ’em by the pussy” and its fallout

The most widely cited single incident is the 2005 Access Hollywood recording released in October 2016, in which Trump bragged about kissing and groping women without consent and said, “Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.” That tape crystallized longstanding patterns reported by media and became a focal point for critics who argued the comments amounted to admission of sexual misconduct. The tape prompted immediate, widespread condemnation, prompted public apologies from Trump, and led many news outlets to compile earlier remarks and allegations showing a consistent pattern of crude, objectifying language ^{[4] [5]}. The release shifted the campaign tempo, generated multiple stories and lists cataloguing other insulting remarks, and intensified scrutiny of his interactions with women throughout his life ^{[1] [3]}.

2. Recurrent targeting of female public figures: insults and mockery

Throughout 2015–2016 Trump repeatedly singled out prominent women with personal insults—calling Megyn Kelly a “bimbo” and accusing her of having “blood coming out of her wherever,” mocking Mika Brzezinski’s appearance and intelligence on Twitter, and labeling Rosie O’Donnell “disgusting inside and out.” He frequently diminished female rivals’ qualifications or attractiveness, as when he disparaged Carly Fiorina’s face and suggested Hillary Clinton relied on the “woman’s card” rather than competence. These public jabs illustrate a pattern of demeaning rhetoric aimed at undermining credibility through appearance- or character-based attacks, not policy criticism, and are catalogued across numerous contemporaneous accounts and retrospective lists ^{[2] [1]}.

3. Sex, objectification and long-term conversational patterns

Beyond campaign speeches and tweets, past interviews and long-term taped conversations reveal more explicit, objectifying talk about women, including comments about women’s bodies and sexual behavior spanning years. Reporting compiled remarks from Howard Stern interviews and other sources showing Trump discussing sexual encounters, age-based judgments about women, and his daughter Ivanka’s physique—material that critics argue demonstrates sustained misogynistic attitudes. These pieces use multiple examples over decades to argue the Access Hollywood tape was part of a broader behavioral pattern, not an isolated lapse ^{[6] [3]}. Supporters contested the interpretation, framing many remarks as braggadocio or locker-room talk, but mainstream reporting treated the body of statements as context for the campaign-era comments ^[5].

4. Policy-adjacent statements: abortion and implications for women’s autonomy

Campaign-era comments also included statements that touched on policy-adjacent matters with implications for women’s rights, such as a town-hall exchange in which Trump said abortion should carry punishment—an assertion critics viewed as implying criminalization of women who have abortions. That line of commentary moved beyond crude insults to suggest positions that could affect women’s legal autonomy, complicating his appeal to female voters who focused both on rhetoric and potential policy outcomes. Media outlets and advocacy groups highlighted how rhetorical attacks on individual women dovetailed with statements suggesting punitive approaches to reproductive health, increasing the stakes of his gendered rhetoric ^[2].

5. Political framing and reactions: supporters, detractors, and media compilations

Reaction to Trump’s comments split along partisan and media lines. Opponents framed the remarks as evidence of misogyny and a pattern of sexual harassment or assault, using compiled lists and investigative pieces to demonstrate consistency ^{[1] [3]}. Supporters often framed the comments as bluntness, taken out of context, or personal feuds—arguing that election policy positions mattered more than insults. Media organizations across the ideological spectrum aggregated quotes and incidents into timelines and lists to illustrate frequency, while some outlets emphasized the electoral consequences and immediate fallout, such as resignations, endorsements revoked, or voter backlash. Those compilations served both informational and advocacy roles but consistently highlighted repeated, publicized instances during the 2016 campaign ^{[2] [1]}.

6. What the record shows: pattern, prominence, and unresolved legal questions

Documented public comments and contemporaneous reporting from 2016 and later establish a clear pattern of derogatory, sexualized, and belittling remarks toward women by Trump during the campaign. The combination of the Access Hollywood tape, targeted insults of public women, and earlier recorded conversations create a multi-source record that media organizations used to argue a consistent approach to discussing women. While many critics treated these remarks as evidence of deeper behavioral problems, legal and political assessments varied: multiple women made misconduct allegations, but the public record consolidated mostly around the rhetorical and reputational effects rather than legal adjudication within the 2016 campaign timeline ^{[4] [3]}.