What Trump's Election Means for Latter-day Saint Women
The next generation of church leaders has demonstrated at worst contempt and at best indifference towards women
A month ago, more than half of young white male voters cast their ballots for Trump. This shouldn’t be too surprising, given that Trump explicitly targeted the demographic, stoking their anger and appealing to a brash and regressive form of masculinity.
But the number of young LDS men celebrating Donald Trump’s victory should be surprising. And terrifying. Surprising because their vote runs counter to LDS teachings and counsel, and terrifying because they are the next generation of spiritual and institutional leaders. These young men will someday be given ultimate religious authority over women in the church. In voting for Trump, they have made clear that they intend to exercise that power by turning a blind eye to women’s pain.
Young LDS men are taught to lead “by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned.” These men were also counseled in a letter from the First Presidency of the church to “study candidates carefully and vote for those who have demonstrated integrity, compassion, and service to others, regardless of party affiliation.” Trump is none of these things. He is crude, boastful, incorrigibly dishonest, cruel, and self-serving.
One of the most jarring ways in which Trump diverges from what Latter-day Saints look for in a leader is his serial mistreatment of women. A particularly horrifying example of this behavior is the infamous Access Hollywood tape, where Trump brags about grabbing women by their genitals and kissing them without their consent. In case we needed more reason to consider him a dangerous sexual predator, in 2023 he was found liable for sexual abusing E. Jean Caroll in a civil suit. By some counts, sixty-seven women have levied similar allegations.
My peers who voted for him are aware of these abuses; they are too frequent and too well-known for any voter to have been ignorant of them. But young men were willing to dismiss them in order to achieve their political ends. Women’s bodies were disposable when weighed against the possibility of cheaper gas and groceries. Raping women was excusable given that we’re engaged in a war against the “enemy within.” Verbally degrading women was hyperbolic and non-consequential. Such was the reasoning of the young male Trump voter. Most who voted for Trump did not do so because of his misogyny, but every person who cast their ballot for him tacitly permitted it.
Why did young LDS men ignore these profound traumas, even after everything they’ve been taught? How do we fathom a returned missionary voting for a rapist? This ought to be an instance of alarming dissonance for church leadership: the next generation of Latter-day Saint leaders has demonstrated at worst contempt and at best indifference towards women.
But for some women in the church, watching LDS men dismiss their pain may not be too shocking. In fact, it’s an attitude that has been reinforced by an institution that gives men ultimate decision-making authority—an institution where it is a man’s prerogative to take up or ignore a woman’s voice as he chooses. Women’s needs have been legitimized, or not, according to how pressing they feel to men. As a result, women’s pain can and has been easily swept away by men who find it unimportant.
In voting for Trump, young LDS men demonstrated what LDS women already knew: for male leaders, women’s concerns are always secondary.
 | A guest post by
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While I agree with some of what you said (particularly about Trump), I can't help but feel that the motives behind voters for Trump have been reduced to a much too simplistic purpose. I can't represent young men, who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as I am clearly not one, and who voted for Trump. While I did not vote for Trump myself (for many of the reasons you listed), the alternative was distasteful to me, as well. She, too, represented things that did not align with my values and principles (nor the LDS Church's). I blame the political parties for the choices they gave us. Nevertheless, to lump all young male LDS voters who voted for Trump (as well as male leaders) into a category of men whose desire is to dominate and ignore women's concerns (though I know that does happen more often than it should) is a bit unfair, I think. This election was much more complex than that. I actually had a meaningful conversation with a man (a faithful member of the LDS faith) who said he was voting for Trump because of the Middle East crisis, and the Russia/Ukraine war. When he explained how he had served in the military and fought for the freedoms of our country (and has suffered poor health since) and how it terrified him of what was going to happen if Harris won--though I didn't necessarily agree with him, I could see his point of view, based on his experiences. This was a strange and sad election, no matter how you look at it.