Judge Ginsburg Funny Jokes With Trump

Trump Uses Curve Gesture While Saying He'll Nominate a Woman to Supreme Court

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he will "most likely" nominate a woman as his Supreme Court pick to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—but it's a hand gesture he made that drew his critics to accuse him of misogyny.

Trump made remarks to reporters outside the White House Saturday in which he used his typically flamboyant hand motions as he spoke. When asked whether he is considering filling Ginsburg's Supreme Court seat with another woman, the president insisted he has multiple women at the top of his nominee list.

However, his remarks were accused of being "creepy" and "sexist" by many critics who pointed to an hourglass hand curve gesture he made while describing how a female judge may fill the vacant seat.

Trump has made the same hand motion while explicitly referencing a woman or women previously, including last April when he was criticized for making a "model" joke while forming the same hourglass figure with his hands.

"I could most likely see that it would be a woman, yes, I think I can say that," Trump responded to reporters outside the White House Saturday before flying down to a Fayetteville, North Carolina rally. "The choice of a woman would certainly be appropriate."

"If somebody were to ask me now, I would say that a woman would be," Trump said, pausing to form a curvy figure with his hands. "In first place."

Critics of the president immediately pounced on the gesture, sharing clips of the remarks in order to label him a "misogynist."

"Which body part is Trump imagining when he says 'a woman' and makes that gesture?" asked Daily Beast columnist Julia Davis.

"Trump signals his next appointment to our nation's highest court, by using a hand gesture to simulate the shape of a woman's breasts," remarked another critic who shared the video clip Saturday on social media.

One for the history books. "I want to come way under the models. The professionals did the models. I was never involved in a model. But—at least this kind of a model," Trump says at the coronavirus briefing. pic.twitter.com/nIICDFUS3y
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 3, 2020

During the North Carolina campaign rally Saturday night, Trump praised Ginsburg's career and lauded her as an equal rights icon. The president also reiterated to the crowd that he intends to nominate a woman to fill her seat. "It will be a woman, a very talented, very brilliant woman. I haven't chosen yet, but we have numerous women on the list."

Trump has mentioned at least two current appellate judges as potential nominees, including 7th Circuit of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who The New York Times reported has ties to a right-wing religious group that may garner Trump even more support among evangelical conservatives. The president also referred to 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Barbara Lagoa, noting her Hispanic heritage and calling her an "extraordinary person" to reporters Saturday.

Last April, Trump drew criticism—and some laughs—after he made a double entendre about the coronavirus "curve" of cases and his past involvement with other "models."

"The professionals developed the models. I was never involved in a model... at least this kind of a model," Trump said with a smirk as he stood next to Dr. Deborah Birx during a White House Coronavirus Task Force Briefing.

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment Sunday morning.