Famed feminist icon Gloria Steinem shared a blunt assessment of President Donald Trump prior to her death at 92, the Daily Beast has learned.
The journalist and activist spoke about Trump, offering a straightforward analysis of the president’s character, in an interview for a podcast—but her thoughts about Trump were cut. The Beast has obtained the full, uncut version.
“Trump is an isolated a-----e that we just, unfortunately, for a series of quite accidental reasons, has ended up in the White House,” Steinem said during an interview on the Curveball with Scott Reich podcast. “We don’t know exactly what he believes except that he should dominate everybody.”
“There’s a fault... in us for not having been politically active enough to support other candidates who would have represented the country way better,” she added. “Somehow, we haven’t managed to make it possible for and encourage enough diverse people to run for political office, especially high office.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
Steinem was a fierce critic of Trump, having delivered a powerful speech at the Women’s March against him after his first inauguration in 2017.
The Ms. Magazine co-founder referred to Trump, 80, as the “harasser in chief” during the Massachusetts Conference for Women in 2017, and told attorney Gloria Allred in 2019 that the president “has made us woke.”
Earlier this year, she also contributed to a guest essay in The New York Times Opinion section in which she offered some curt advice for Trump as he entered the octogenarian’s club: “Resign.”
Trump has yet to say anything about Steinem’s death, despite his propensity for making public statements about the deaths of figures who have criticized him.
The president offered his most heartfelt eulogy ever for singer Dolly Parton after her death last week, and ordered flags to be lowered to half-mast in her honor. However, in classic Trump fashion, he followed it up later with AI-generated slop depicting him and the singer arm-in-arm.
Democratic figures such as Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, and Jill Biden all came out of the woodwork to celebrate Steinem’s life, sharing messages to social media in her honor on Thursday.
The news of Steinem’s death was first announced in a statement shared on her Instagram early Thursday morning, which explained that she had died peacefully at her home in New York City.
“Her words, actions, and example gave people permission to be their truest selves,” the post read.
