Trump has an odd, choppy, ungainly and grammatically incorrect way of speaking and always has. Some of it is his native New York-ese and some of it is a sort of verbal shorthand that doesn’t waste time on grammatical conventions, and some of it is crude exaggeration to get a point across.
I have no trouble imagining him as intending to say ‘their rapists’, but at the same time I can easily see how most people would take it as ‘they’re rapists’. That’s how I took it as a matter of fact, but having read and followed Trump for a long time I pretty well knew what he meant even though it didn’t sound that way.
As far as why he hasn’t tried to walk it back, generally guys like Trump adhere to the old adage, “Don’t complain, don’t explain”. Trump complains a lot about America’s state of affairs and other things he doesn’t like, but you don’t hear him complaining about his private difficulties or misfortunes and you don’t hear him taking pains to make sure people understand him correctly, or understand and accept whatever it is he’s up to.
Trump is a brilliant guy. He always knows what he’s doing and it’s rarely what everyone thinks it is. He’s always got something up his sleeve and is usually working to achieve things about three or four levels beyond what he appears to be doing on the surface.
I’m reminded of something his ex-wife Ivana once said about him after they’d split. Remember, this is a woman who worked side by side with him for many years and was a high-powered executive in her own right within his companies. She was worried about the outcome of their divorce and said of him, “You can’t win. He will always find a way to outsmart you!” In the end he did the right thing and took care of her financially, but the point remains that he’s an exceedingly smart and clever guy.
People who dismiss Trump as a fool or a dolt or an idiot and who tend to dismiss his business success as due to inherited wealth and serial bankruptcy show by their very words they don’t know what they’re talking about. They remind me of the sort of people who belittle Ringo Starr’s drumming ability. True musicians and true money men (i.e., the bankers and investors who finance Trump’s ventures) know where the talent really lies and you don’t hear them running down the abilities or either Ringo Starr or Donald Trump.
I’m far from convinced that Trump is serious about becoming president. It could be that business has become boring and mundane and he relishes the idea of negotiating with politicos and foreign leaders as being more challenging. But you can pretty well bet that whatever he’s up to, he knows damn well what he wants to accomplish by it. And you can lay pretty good odds that he will.