Trump provokes outrage by asking women at rally if husbands ‘are OK’ with them attending

US president seemingly recognised group from previous events

President Donald Trump asked a group of women at a rally in North Carolina if their husbands were okay with them attending.

At the rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Saturday night, Mr Trump announced that he would nominate a woman to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, following her death on Friday evening.

The president then pretended to do a poll to work out who he should nominate for the lifetime appointment, when he spotted a group of women in the crowd that he seemed to recognise.

“Ok let’s do a poll. Oh there they are. How many of these have you come to?”, he asked the group of women.

“What is this, number what? Like, 90? I see ‘em all over the place, they’re great,” he added.

“Anyway, I hope your husbands are OK with it,” he told the group. “Are they OK? They're OK. You have good husbands,” the president added.

Twitter users were shocked by his comments, and user @BarbaraRyan6 tweeted: “You can't make this stuff up; his misogyny will always come spilling out it's so ingrained he can't help himself; he's actually laughable.”

User @scrabblemalibu claimed: “And there it is. That’s what they believe makes America great, women asking permission to do things.”

While @ShanetteCohen said: “This is gross - beyond the ‘permission’ he’s also implying the husbands would be jealous.”

Twitter user @GeauxShelley added: “If women still vote for him, it's mind boggling,” while @liberalgoddess reacted: “Women don't need permission to do things,” and @candylee8 simply wrote: “What?”

Mr Trump’s comments came amid controversy surrounding the timeline of the nomination of a new Supreme Court justice, with Democratic officials calling for it to wait until after 3 November’s election.

A place on the court is a lifetime position and if a justice is appointed by Mr Trump, it would likely give it a Conservative super majority that could stand for decades.

On Friday evening, Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, said that the nomination should wait until after the election, following a tribute to Ms Ginsburg.

He said: “There is no doubt, let me be clear, that the voters should pick the president and the president should pick the justice for the Senate to consider.”

However, at the rally on Saturday night the president confirmed that he will nominate Ms Ginsburg’s replacement while he is in office, because he feels he has an “obligation” to.

He added: “It will be a woman. A very talented, very brilliant woman, who I haven't chosen yet, but we have numerous women on the list.”