Donald Trump, who recently told American women to consider him their "protector," mocked a female heckler ejected from his rally, and gloated that she would "get the hell knocked out of her" at home.
The startling public comment occurred after Trump was heckled by someone in the stands behind him at his rally Saturday in Coachelle, California. The woman was quickly escorted out by security guards.
Trump turned behind him, and smiling, mocked the woman, saying: "Back home to mommy. She goes back home to mommy ... gets the hell knocked out of her."
He claimed the woman's "mother and father" are his supporters, even though he had no idea of the heckler's identity.
The grinning endorsement of domestic violence against a woman was in marked contrast to Trump calling on America just last month to consider him the "protector" of the nation's women.
That comment was an attempt by the candidate to win female voters infuriated by his efforts to end abortion rights to force women to carry to term embryos they don't want. Lagging support by women voters may result in the biggest voting gender gap in American history, according to political observers.
Social media erupted over the scene.
Trump spent much of his speech evoking an apocalyptic American that largely exists in his mind with falsehoods about migrants in the nation. He called November 5 "liberation day," and called the United States an "occupied" country.
"We are known all throughout the world now as an occupied country," Trump insisted. "We got people taking over parts of Colorado, we have people taking over other states, a lot of states don't want to talk about it, because they're embarrassed."
Trump also threatened at the rally to withhold wildfire aid to California if he becomes president (he has baselessly claimed the federal government is withholding storm aid to Republican states) if the state doesn't allow farmers every drop of water they demand for their operations.