Polls show Donald Trump’s support in America’s suburbs has plunged, especially among women. 

So on Tuesday night, he launched a desperate appeal to those voters during a campaign event in Pennsylvania.

“Suburban women, would you please like me? Please. Please,” he said. “I saved your damn neighbourhood, OK?” 

Trump bragged that he made it more difficult to build low-income housing in the suburbs. 

“I ended the regulation that destroyed your neighbourhood. I ended the regulation that brought crime to the suburbs,” he declared on Tuesday. “And you’re going to live the American dream, and that’s what you’re going to do.”

Critics have decried Trump’s constant claims of “saving” the suburbs as little more than a dog whistle vow to keep people of colour out of those neighbourhoods.

“Oh, my. I mean, it’s not even a dog whistle anymore,” Senator Chris Murphy said on Twitter over the summer when Trump made a similar claim. “Our president is now a proud, vocal segregationist.”

Trump on Tuesday also claimed he won 52% of the women’s vote in the 2016 election. He won 52% of white women. 

Overall, he won 41% of the votes cast by women, while 54% selected his Democratic rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.