Explaining Trump's Rage Toward Lisa Page

Lisa Page, the former FBI lawyer, has been living rent free in demagogue and misogynist Donald "P*ssygrabber" Trump's sick mind for a couple of years. She, along with FBI official Peter Strzok, exchanged some bland political comments via text messages while participating in the FBI's investigation of the Clinton e-mail issue and Russia's interference in the 2016 elections. But Trump's rage has been particularly intense for Page, and writing in the Washington Post, Molly Jong-Fast has an explanation for that:

"Page’s decision to come forward — 'I decided to take my power back,' she told me — raises the question of why she has served as such an intense and constant subject of presidential abuse. I suspect the explanation is twofold: Page embodies two groups that most incite Trump’s wrath when threatened: she is a public servant — a member of the so-called deep state, as Trump sees it — and, perhaps even more inciting to Trump, she is a woman who has dared to stand up to him. 

Trump’s obsession with the “deep state” is well documented. If anything, it is growing, as members of the Foreign Service and other career civil servants provide evidence against him in the impeachment proceedings. [snip]

The president’s hostility toward powerful women has also long been evident; they seem to particularly outrage him. Trump’s favorite female targets include the Squad, Christine Blasey Ford, E. Jean Carroll and Elizabeth Warren. The president’s verbal assaults on women run the gamut from attacking Megyn Kelly’s physiology ('blood coming out of her wherever') to attacking Carly Fiorina’s appearance ('Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?')."  (our emphasis)

Jong-Fast notes that the hostility toward Page is different in tone and substance from that directed at Strzok:

"He has not held back from attacking Strzok, but the way he talks about Page is markedly different. While the president never comments on Strzok’s physical appearance, his descriptions of Page drip sexism and misogyny. It is always Strzok 'and his FBI lover, Lisa Page,' 'the lovely Lisa Page,' 'FBI Lover/Agent Lisa Page.' The president’s use of the word 'lovely' has a particularly patronizing undertone, as though Page’s value is completely a result of her appearance. The use of the word 'lover' serves a similar function. as though Page, an experienced lawyer who rose through the ranks of the Justice Department and FBI, is valued and relevant only for her sexuality." (our emphasis)

Because Trump values a woman's "appearance" over everything and views them as useful in only a sexual sense, he directs his anger at a woman who dared to break that mold and criticize him, albeit in private text messages. Lisa Page's story, which she is now telling, should come as a warning to women who delude themselves in thinking that Trump has anything but a sick, pathological  contempt for them.