Even for Donald Trump, these comments about women are shocking

Just a few weeks before the seismic 2016 election, Donald Trump was accused by two women of sexual assault in a damning New York Times article. In the piece, it was outlined how businesswoman Jessica Leeds had allegedly been assaulted by Trump during a flight to New York in the late 1970s.

Days after the allegations broke, the Washington Post then obtained and published a now-infamous Access Hollywood recording of Trump from 2005, in which he could be heard saying: “I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the p***y. You can do anything.”

He still got in, becoming the 45th president of the United States on 8 November, 2016.

Then, three years into his premiership, former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll came forward and said Trump raped her in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman in 1996.

It wasn’t until seven years later, in May 2023, that Trump was found liable for defaming and sexually abusing Carroll and ordered to pay her $5m in damages. But now his lawyers are arguing for a retrial, claiming the evidence used in the case was “highly inadmissible”.

None of this surprises me – the fact that he was found to have assaulted Carroll last year, nor that he’s continuing to try to wriggle out of it. But what does shock me is what Trump has said – and continues to say – about the women he’s accused of abusing.

On Friday, during a press conference in New York, he said of Carroll: “I never met her. I have never touched her. I would have no interest in meeting her in any shape or form,” before claiming that her testimony was “a made-up fabricated story by somebody just looking to promote a book”.

He even suggested that the photo of the two of them together could have been AI generated.

Even more disturbing, still, was what he said about Leeds. “Frankly,” he said, “I know you’re going to say it’s a terrible thing to say — but it couldn’t have happened, it didn’t happen, and she would not have been the chosen one. She would not have been the chosen one.”

Let’s repeat that: “She would not have been the chosen one.” Women everywhere can only take that to mean one thing: that if he was going to assault anyone, it wouldn’t be Leeds – because she simply “wasn’t his type”.

For a man who has said such disgusting and disgraceful things about women in the past, even this reaches dizzying new heights. For any other politician, such sexist comments just weeks before the 2024 presidential election would spark a global backlash; would rightly kill his chances of winning against Kamala Harris.

But for “Teflon Trump”, such basic rules of logic and common decency seem to be suspended. When will he finally face the consequences for his actions?

Even when he has been arrested, charged, impeached and publicly outed for his (other) crimes, it has had little impact on his reputation and has never resulted in him being put behind bars. Is that why he does it? He knows he can act with impunity – so he does?

None of it is right, but these latest comments are some of his worst to date. For any survivor of sexual assault or victim of sexual harassment, these words are not only immensely insulting; they are also extremely triggering. The idea that a woman couldn’t possibly have been attacked because she is not deemed “attractive” by her assaulter is preposterous and deeply harmful – I should know.

Coincidentally, as the results for the last election came through and it was announced that Trump was out and Joe Biden had won, I was sexually harassed on the Tube. It was the height of the pandemic and also a particularly cold day in London, so I was not only clad in many layers, gloves and a beanie hat, I also had a face mask on. Literally the only skin on show was the section between my hat and mask. That still didn’t stop the perpetrator.

Looks do not come into the equation – predators will attack regardless of what the woman or girl is wearing, how much makeup they have on or whether they’re a blonde or brunette. To suggest otherwise not only implies that women can prevent such attacks, it is also a lazy and ruthless technique adopted to undermine the validity of the claim. It’s pure victim-blaming.

But with Trump, there’s a lot more to it than that. It isn’t just about how he views women, it’s about the message he sends to others. Such flippant comments, coming from someone of such obscene wealth, power and influence, have an enormous impact on how women in these types of cases (and women in general) are viewed. His nonchalance gives men a free pass – showing them that they can do and say as they please; that they are essentially above the law.

I’m willing to bet this latest misogynistic outburst won’t affect his popularity polls, one bit. How depressing.

For despite many outlets and members of the public condemning his outdated and dangerous views, according to the most recent poll by The New York Times and Siena College, things are still pretty much neck and neck between him and Harris – the former is just 1 point ahead at 48 per cent. Compare that to The Economist’s poll from last week, where Harris was three points ahead. The situation feels very bleak.

I cannot help but feel that in a week in which we have seen the most heinous and devastating accounts of domestic violence and rape emerging from France – and witnessed the death of an Olympic athlete who was doused in petrol and set alight in Kenya, allegedly by an ex-boyfriend – violence (and violent rhetoric) against women is reaching a tipping point.

If Trump wins, things won’t get any better for women. And I do fear that history is about to repeat itself; that no matter what Trump does or says, he will find a way to bounce back.

What’s even scarier is the idea that it is because of what he does and says that he keeps defying the odds, because that means that people actually agree with what he is saying. For the sake of women the world over, I sincerely hope that’s not true. We need it to not be.