On Thursday, former Republican Matt Gaetz announced that he would withdraw his candidacy to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general. Aggravation of allegations of sexual misconductwith sexual intercourse with a 17-year-old minor.
The allegations against Gaetz, who has been the subject of a yearlong investigation by the House Ethics Committee, as well as a separate one, previously The FBI is investigating allegations of sex trafficking Florida proved too much for the Republican nomination that never resulted in criminal charges. (Getz has denied all wrongdoing.)
But Gaetz is the only person in Trump’s cabinet to face such allegations. In fact, a significant number of people Trump is keen to position in his inner circle have been accused of some form of sexual misconduct, from harassment to sexual assault to enabling a culture of exploitation.
In addition to Gaetz, there are also:
- Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host, was Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense A woman was accused of sexual assault in 2017 in her hotel room after an event for the California Federation of Republican Women. Later he said Paying her to keep quiet As part of a confidential legal settlement. This incident has been stated in a recently published police report The accused believed Hegseth had drugged him. Hegseth thinks the encounter was consensual and has not been criminally charged.
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Trump has tapped to be Health and Human Services secretary Accused of rocking her teenage babysitter. Kennedy A text was sent to the accused apologizing In which he said he had “no memory” of the incident.
- Elon Musk, whom Trump has charged with making government more efficient, was Former SpaceX employees sued Those who say he fired them when they protested the company’s pervasive sexual harassment culture. Musk does not appear to have publicly addressed the lawsuit.
- Linda McMahon, Trump’s pick for education secretary, is the target of a recent lawsuit that she alleges Knowingly active sexual exploitation of children by another employee at World Wrestling Entertainment when she and her husband, Vince McMahon, headed it in the early 1980s. McMahon has denied the allegations through an attorney.
Trump himself, of course, has his own decades-long history of sexual misconduct. Just last year he was held civilly liable for sexual assault. He was caught on tape bragging about sexually assaulting women. At least 21 women have accused him of sexual harassment. Including his ex-wife Ivana Trump In the deposition of divorce.
Trump has long seemed to have a penchant for people like him who have been accused of sexual misconduct. Before he became president, he was close friends with notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. One of his Supreme Court picks, Brett Kavanagh, was accused of sexual assault by multiple women (Cavanaugh denied all claims), but Trump stood by him in his heated confirmation hearings. Cavanaugh later assisted in the fall Roe v. WadeReturning reproductive rights to the country for a generation.
We know Trump’s own cavalier attitude toward sexual harassment is notorious Access Hollywood tape, in which he can be heard laughingly bragging about sexually assaulting women for the benefit of Billy Bush. Trump talked about the attack as if it was barely important during their conversation: it seemed to be of primary importance Social capital it will grant him with another man.
We don’t know exactly why Trump has surrounded himself with fellow accused sex predators and those accused of enabling them, or why he chose these particular individuals to fill the nation’s most prestigious positions. Regardless of Trump’s intentions, however, his nomination sends a clear message: Being credibly accused of sexual assault is not a serious barrier to rising to the highest office in American government or to commanding the bodies of millions of people. In short, your body, my choice
Gaetz ultimately had to withdraw his nomination, although it is unclear how much this was due to his alleged sexual misconduct and how much to his long-standing passion. Conflict with his Republican colleagues. The line for Cabinet members under Trump seems to be: Your colleagues can’t threaten to release a detailed report showing you had sex with a minor, and you can’t be personally hostile to those whose votes you need to secure. Otherwise, very few are off the table. After all, one credible sexual assault allegation hasn’t destroyed all Trump’s choices: Republican senator Seen to rally around HegsethEven after the release of the graphic police report, though, the confirmation process is still in its early days.
Trump’s cabinet picks are a kind of triumphalism, a concept he already demonstrated when he was successfully elected president. The idea is: You can be accused of sexual assault — you can be held civilly liable for sexual assault — and still hold some of the highest and most powerful offices in the land. And you can use that power to take away women’s right to control their own bodies, to repeat personal violations on a massive scale.
Hegseth, if confirmed, would remain in charge of the Pentagon, which has been open for years fought against a culture of widespread sexual violence. Gaetz, if his nomination goes through, would oversee a judiciary charged with investigating and prosecuting federal sex crimes.
In a country that frequently and enthusiastically proclaims that feminism is going too far, our newly elected president is determined to show that it isn’t.
