The Women In Donald Trump's Life Can't Save Him

In conjunction with his recent emphasis on trying to improve his standing with female Americans, it was announced on Tuesday that Donald Trump will unveil a new maternity leave policy. According to reports, the plan includes a six-week maternity leave and tax-deductible child care options for individuals making under $250,000, or couples making under $500,000 annually. Ivanka will introduce her father when he is expected to formally propose his new plan at a campaign event in Aston, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday night. That's fitting, considering Ivanka was influential in creating the policy, according to a Washington Post report.

While the Trump maternity plan may sound progressive compared to previous Republican stances on maternity leave, Trump's plan is still only offering half the paid time off as Hillary Clinton's proposal for 12-week parental leave. Beyond the easily tracked fact that Clinton has been touting her plan for longer than Trump, it's also notable that Clinton's plan includes paternal leave, while Trump's only includes mothers. As a result, a policy like Trump's risks continuing to place the onus of child care on women. The Huffington Post's Emily Peck and Elise Foley pointed out this concern with Trump's maternity leave plan, also noting, "Advocates for paid leave, while encouraged that more politicians were embracing the need for leave policy, were quick to call him out for ignoring men, adoptive parents and those who care for sick relatives."

The timing of Trump's new child care policy is not his only recent bid to change his standing with American women. According to a report on Politico, on Saturday afternoon the "Trump-Pence Women's Empowerment" tour was launched. The tour includes Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson, his daughter-in law Lara Trump, Trump's director of African-American outreach Omarosa Manigault, the vice president of the Eric Trump foundation Lynn Patton, and two YouTube stars, Diamond and Silk.

In keeping with Trump's last-minute attempts to make amends with women voters, the tour started with Lara telling a mostly female crowd in Ohio:

We really don’t have any idea what we’re doing, except we said, "We’ve got to go out and tell people what a great guy Donald Trump is."

I am not surprised by Trump's sloppy hustle to court female voter. According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released last week, Clinton is beating Trump with women nationally by 14 points. Trump needs all the help he can get from the women in his life. However, that tour, along with the fact that Ivanka will be introducing Trump before he officially introduces his child care plan, just confirms what I've long felt about the Republican candidate: Trump has a serious inability to connect with women on his own.