A government by toxic men, for toxic men
The He-Man Woman-Hater's administration.
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Throughout his campaign for president, Donald Trump promised his followers that he would use his power to harm those he, and they, consider enemies.
Those enemies included trans people and immigrants. They also included, not very subtly, women. Trump repeatedly demeaned Kamala Harris with sexist and sexual insults, including falsely suggesting she had sex with powerful men to advance her career.
By electing Trump, voters ultimately opted for more of that crude misogyny in public life. The president-elect quickly delivered on that mandate with obscene proposals like making Matt Gaetz the top law enforcement official in the country.
Gaetz’s AG nomination went down in flames last week amid credible allegations he paid women, including underage ones, for sex. (Gaetz denies wrongdoing.) But he’s far from the only Trump appointee with a history of abuse.
In fact, Trump, who himself has been held liable for sexual assault, seems to surround himself with certain men because they mistreat women, not in spite of it.
The contemporary GOP under Trump has defined itself as a party devoted to violence, harassment, and the denial of women’s bodily autonomy. Abuse, harassment, and dismissing the testimony of women are central to the party’s policies and to its ethics. Not only are Republicans unable to expel abusers, they actively empower them.
“Your body, my choice”
Trump has appointed people accused of abuse to high office in the past. One of his Supreme Court picks, Brett Kavanaugh, was accused of sexual assault during his confirmation hearing. But instead of taking the claim seriously, Trump secretly blocked an FBI investigation into the charges, and Kavanaugh was confirmed by the Senate.
And, again, Trump himself has been accused of sexual misconduct — such as groping and harassment — by dozens of women. Writer E. Jean Carroll sued him for sexual assault and defamation, and he was found liable for both. The judge on the case said that this amounted to a finding that Trump had raped Carroll.
Trump has of course refused to apologize to Carroll or to acknowledge any wrongdoing. His smug defiance is a model for the party he heads, which has made targeted harassment a core value. Interpersonal sexual violence and abuse of power is mirrored in public attacks on marginalized people that are intended to humiliate, terrorize, and silence.
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There are so many incidents of Trump-inspired harassment it’s impossible to list them all. But as just two examples: in 2020, Trump and his minions falsely accused two Black women election workers in Georgia of tampering with votes. The women received a brutal, unremitting stream of death threats, forcing them to flee their homes.
Similarly, during the 2024 campaign, Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, spewed virulent lies about the Haitian community in Springfield, claiming (falsely) that Haitian immigrants were eating pets. The lies led to bomb threats and school closures.
It’s significant, in this context, that public, sexualized attacks on women are central to MAGA politics. One of Trump’s main accomplishments in his first term was appointing far right Supreme Court justices (like Kavanaugh) who destroyed women’s right to abortion and bodily autonomy.
States have since passed laws which prevent women from receiving vital reproductive care. This has led, inevitably, to horrific deaths as hospitals allow women to go into sepsis rather than providing care that might fall afoul of anti-abortion laws. Just as inevitably, it’s led to states experimenting with travel bans, preventing pregnant people from crossing state lines to access care.
These laws are meant to violate women’s consent; they deny women choice and agency in making decisions about their bodies. This is part of the appeal for MAGA, as was made very clear in these last weeks.
Following Harris’s defeat, pro-Trump men began trolling women on social media with posts declaring, “Your body, my choice.” That’s a slogan that explicitly and enthusiastically normalizes sexual harassment and violence — the kinds of harassment and violence for which Trump has been held liable, and which many of his cabinet appointments stand accused of.
The misconduct cabinet
With Gaetz gone, the nominee who is now receiving the most scrutiny for sexual misconduct is Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for defense secretary.
We learned shortly after Hegseth’s nomination was announced that he has been accused of sexual assault. In 2017, at a Republican convention in California, a woman, whose name has not been released, filed a police report accusing Hegseth of taking her phone and preventing her from leaving his hotel room before assaulting her. She said she was intoxicated, and that her drink may have been drugged, but that she remembers clearly saying “no” repeatedly as Hegseth attacked her.
Hegseth reached a financial settlement with his accuser, but denies any wrongdoing. There are other documents from the incident that remain confidential; it’s unclear whether they can or will be viewed by the Senate during a confirmation hearing.
There’s more. Trump’s utterly unqualified and dangerous pick for secretary of health and human services, crank vaccine-denier and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been repeatedly accused of sexual harassment and impropriety.
Kennedy has a history of infidelity and affairs, many of which he detailed in his diary; most recently he had a sexting relationship with then-New York magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi. He’s also been accused of making a series of inappropriate sexual advances and then groping Eliza Cooney, a babysitter in his home, in 1998 when she was 23 and he was 45.
Cooney went public earlier this year because she was disturbed by Kennedy’s campaign for president. Kennedy, when confronted with the accusations, notably did not deny them. Instead, he said that he was “not a church boy … I have so many skeletons in my closet.”
Unbelievably, that is not all. Linda McMahon, former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and Trump’s pick for secretary of education, is also the focus of a sexual assault scandal. McMahon is party to a lawsuit which alleges that she, her husband Vince McMahon, and the WWE allowed their employee Melvin Phillips Jr. to use his position in the organization to sexually abuse five John Does between the ages of 13 and 15. The allegations were first reported in 1992. McMahon, who is separated from Vince, denies any wrongdoing.
Finally, there is Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy have been tapped to lead a “department of government efficiency.” This is an advisory body, not a cabinet post, so no confirmation hearing is required.
It still should be a scandal, though, that Musk faces numerous allegations of sexual harassment. He was accused of exposing himself to a flight attendant on a private jet in 2016 (he denied the accusation). He’s also accused of having sex with two employees at SpaceX, including an intern. And earlier this year several fired SpaceX engineers sued Musk alleging that he created a “hostile work environment” with photographs, memes, and commentary that “demeaned women and/or the LGBTQ+ community.” The engineers say that after they brought these concerns to the company, Musk fired them in retaliation. (Again, Musk denies the allegations.)
MAGA means impunity
Make America Great Again always meant returning America to a time when rich white men had power to subjugate others with impunity. Trumpism promises its adherents that they will be able to harm those they see as lesser — immigrants, Black people, trans people, working class people, women. Empowerment is framed as the ability to punish others, to degrade and harm them without consequences.
That’s the sort of program that appeals to abusers. More, it’s the sort of program that makes it difficult to weed them out or hold them accountable. After all, the whole point of Trumpism is that certain people can do whatever they want. If your platform is that women have no right to bodily autonomy, and the head of your party has been held liable for sexual assault, on what grounds can you reject nominees who are accused of sexual misconduct?
Gaetz dropped out because he thought he couldn’t get confirmed, which suggests some Republican senators privately signaled they would reject him. That seems like the absolute minimum you could ask for. But the blizzard of nominees who have been accused of sexual misconduct, and the choice of Trump to head the party, speak for themselves.
This is who the GOP is; it is what Americans voted for. We failed women.
That’s it for today
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Such a horrific, gruesome persecution of women and minorities would have been unimaginable before Mitch McConnel in 2015 betrayed the people of the US, stole the Supreme Court, and ever since has supported unspeakable evil. It breaks my heart to see all the progress for human rights, which we have fought for and made over decades, destroyed.
A fish rots from the head down! When a bunch of unelected bureaucrats become as corrupt as the man America voted to put in power, then our system of government no longer exists or can function properly.
A man like Trump was conjured from thin air. He’s the malignant cancer that has metastasizing for decades; and just the end result! Misogyny always existed. White Supremacy always existed. Crooked politicians always existed. Racism always existed. Xenophobia always existed.
What’s changed is the fact that these people and ideas have always been considered fringe; until Reagan gave them a seat at the table. And it’s been downhill from there.
Additionally, another critical change was the rule of law and how it’s applied. Bush v Gore, which illegally handed the presidency to a man, without a constitutionally mandated recount being completed. Dark money in politics used to be illegal; now it’s legalized bribery! And no place is more corrupt than SCOTUS (million dollar vacations, Free Winnebago’s, confirmed sexual assaulters, clear conflicts of interest, etc..).
Furthermore, the gutting of the Voter Rights Act increased voter suppression. Gerrymandering also increased voter suppression. And other recent rulings like Chevron and OHSA which have been gutting worker right protections for decades. Not to mention, all the Shadow Docket opinions done in secret.
Let’s face it, even without Trump, SCOTUS has been destroying our Constitution for the last 24 years; it’s been a slow, painful death, by a thousand judicial cuts! IMHO!…:)