Donald Trump once suggested that sexual assault and rape in the military is not the fault of the men doing the attacking, but the fault of the military for putting men and women together.
Donald Trump’s past tweets about rape and sexual misconduct seem even worse now
The sexual assault allegations against Trump put these tweets in a new light.
Seriously. Here’s the tweet:
The tweet has gotten a lot of attention in recent days as we’ve found out some truly disturbing things about Trump’s history with women. Last week, the Washington Post published leaked audio footage in which Trump essentially bragged that he can sexually assault women — “grab ’em by the pussy” — because he’s a celebrity. And in the past couple of days, seven women have come out with allegations that Trump forcibly kissed and groped them.
The tweet adds another disturbing layer to Trump’s comments and the allegations: It shows a very pervasive attitude toward sexual assault in America. It suggests that it’s only natural for men to sexually assault or advance on women if men and women are placed in the same environment for long periods of time.
Trump suggested as much in his 2004 book How to Get Rich: “All the women on The Apprentice flirted with me — consciously or unconsciously. That’s to be expected. A sexual dynamic is always present between people, unless you are asexual.”
Basically, in Trump’s view, it’s not a man’s — or perhaps Trump’s — problem that he sexually harasses or assaults women. It’s nature’s.
And this isn’t the only time Trump has tweeted about sexual misconduct.
“The WORST abuser of woman in U.S. political history”
Trump has also long criticized Bill Clinton for abusing his power to allegedly sexually assault women — exactly what Trump is accused of now. Take these tweets from the past year:
He also tweeted a lot about former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), who’s repeatedly gotten into trouble over the years for going around his wife and sexting with other women. Here are just a few examples:
There’s some hypocrisy here. In the early 1990s, Trump cheated on his first wife, Ivana Trump, with Marla Maples, who later became his second wife.
Then again, Trump ghost writer Tony Schwartz once tweeted that “most negative things [Trump] says about others are actually describing him. Read his tweets with that in mind.”
