The Atlantic / Adam Serwer: Trumpists Don't Seem to Mind Claims of Sexual Assault (Gift link) [View all]

[Dennis Donovan]

The Atlantic / Adam Serwer - Trumpists Don’t Seem to Mind Claims of Sexual Assault

Anything is forgivable as long as it comes from people they like.

By Adam Serwer

Donald Trump is most likely not trying to intentionally assemble a Cabinet chock-full of people accused either of sexual assault or of enabling it, but if he were, he’d be killing it.

Former Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, who has been accused of “sexual encounters” with a minor and paying women for sex, withdrew his nomination for attorney general last month. Gaetz, who has denied the allegations, was in no way qualified for the position, but he met Trump’s main criterion of being likely to comply with the president-elect’s every decree. (In Gaetz’s stead, Trump has nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who faces claims of more pedestrian political corruption.)

Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, the former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, has a military background, but he holds extreme views and beyond being another Trump toady is similarly unqualified to lead America’s large, complicated military bureaucracy. A 22-page police report describes an alleged sexual assault in California seven years ago—Hegseth has insisted that the encounter was consensual, and later entered into a financial settlement with the accuser; no charges were ultimately filed. Beyond the accusation, Hegseth’s statements about sexual assault and women reveal someone who appears to not take either rape or women’s contributions to the military seriously; he has, for example, suggested reversing the rule allowing women in combat roles, because they might be raped by their comrades. If Hegseth is innocent of the sexual-assault allegations, he would nevertheless remain unfit for the role.

Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is a staunch ally of preventable childhood diseases who belongs nowhere near a public-health position in the federal government, given his views on vaccinations alone. He also stands accused of sexually assaulting his former live-in nanny. (As The Guardian reported, when asked about the incident publicly, Kennedy acknowledged having “skeletons in his closet,” and later sent the nanny a text saying he had no memory of the incident but apologizing for making her uncomfortable.)

Linda McMahon, Trump’s pick to ruin the Department of Education, is being sued alongside her husband, the wrestling magnate Vince McMahon, over allegedly having enabled the sexual abuse of underage “ring boys” who worked for what was then known as the World Wrestling Federation, now World Wrestling Entertainment. (The McMahons have also denied any wrongdoing.) McMahon’s husband reportedly remains under federal investigation for sex trafficking related to their business, and she has no background in education, other than a brief stint on the Connecticut Board of Education that ended shortly before the revelation that she had falsely claimed to have an education degree.

Then there is Trump himself, who in a 2023 civil suit was held liable for sexually abusing the writer E. Jean Carroll. As Quinta Jurecic writes, “The choice to begin a new administration with this particular slate of picks represents a remarkable commitment to moral ugliness.” The message seems to be that allegations should be taken seriously only if they involve a certain class of persons.

/snip