Throughout Trump’s presidency, the White House has seen a rollercoaster of firings, hirings, allegations and general craziness. It’s hard to keep track of the people this administration has gone through.
The rollercoaster just took quite a few more turns though, when both Rob Porter, the staff secretary, and speechwriter David Sorensen were accused of abuse by their former wives. Unsurprisingly, Trump defended them vehemently.
Trump tweeted Saturday morning, “People’s lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused — life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?”
As many noticed, Trump failed to recognize the victims that made these allegations or offer any condolences to them. Even worse, these allegations were well-documented and known to the White House for months, with many White House staff condemning the actions of Porter and Sorensen.
Porter’s former wife, Colbie Holderness, even shared pictures of a bruised and black eye, and said that Porter did that to her while on vacation in Italy. His other ex-wife, Jennifer Willoughby, obtained a restraining order against him.
All of this information provides a fair amount of proof that these allegations are not just random and fabricated, but do have some truth to them. However, that means nothing to Trump, because as we have seen before, his concern for women is very low.
As The New York Times reported, Trump has defended other abusers in the past, including Roy Moore, Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News, who resigned amid multiple allegations of misconduct, as well as Corey Lewandowski, his former campaign manager who was charged with battery after grabbing the arm of a female reporter and Mike Tyson, the boxer who went to jail for raping an 18-year-old.
This is even more significant in the wake of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, in which women are making a statement that they are done putting up with sexual harassment, abuse and assault. Now, they are holding men accountable for their actions.
Trump does not think accountability is a good thing apparently, because he would much rather believe the word of an alleged abuser over a woman with pictures as proof of her abuse.
But all of this makes sense. Trump has had many sexual harassment allegations made against him, and has continued to deny those as well. With his record of disgusting comments and opinions on women, this is not hard to believe.
It is difficult living in a country where the president is the type of man I have been taught to fear, because he takes what he want and feels no remorse about it. Even scarier, Trump sets a standard for how our country views sexual assault, and he sets that standard low.
Ironically, in the 1989 “Central Park Five” case where five black boys were accused of raping a jogger in Central Park, Trump bought a full-page ad in newspapers suggesting the death penalty be reinstated in New York. He was very quick to insist the fate of these boys, and even continued to insist their guilt after the convictions were dropped.
Why does he so strongly believe those boys are rapists, but he thinks the allegations against his aides are wrong and destroying lives? I think we can all figure out the reason why.
Due process is important for everyone, including the women accusing and the men accused. But Trump only wants to defend one of those groups and completely ignore the other.
While the world is becoming safer for women who are victims, it is still difficult to face their abuser and receive justice for the terrible crimes committed. Trump pays no mind to this suffering in his defense of Porter and Sorenson, showing the public yet again how he views women and their rights as human beings.
