My Turn: Trump and the ‘He Too’ guys

Glenn Carstens-Peters/StockSnap

By EDWARD DOWD

Published: 01-12-2025 11:38 AM

 

Most Americans are aware of the Me Too movement that was launched during the last two decades. This campaign’s focus is to draw attention to a culture that allows sexual harassment and assault to continue, particularly in the workplace.

The hope is that by victims of abuse courageously coming forward, awareness would be followed first by societal shock and outrage and finally reforms in the systems that allow these atrocities to continue.

Over time these efforts have shown direct results. A number of major institutions including the military and the entertainment industry have been forced to show greater accountability related to how they respond to reports of harassment and abuse.

With the recent election of Donald Trump, it seems a different kind of “Me Too” movement is being promoted. The president-elect has, for many years, been accused by multiple women of being a sexual predator. In public statements, Trump has asserted that he is unable to control his urges and initiates physical contact spontaneously.

He has further mused about how men in power (like himself) have always enjoyed such latitude. Recently the president-elect’s appeal to dismiss his conviction by a jury on civil charges of sexual assault has been denied.

In evaluating Trump’s selections for upper-level Cabinet picks it seems that mistreatment of women is not a disqualifier but in fact an asset. Look at the list: Matt Geatz (though recently withdrawn as a candidate for U.S. attorney general) has been found by the bipartisan House Ethics Committee to have exploited underage girls in various ways, including supplying illegal drugs and allegedly sexually abusing them.

Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, has been credibly accused of sexual assault, and was forced to resign from more than one veterans organization board due in part to his sexually pursuing female staff members. RFK Jr., Trump’s pick to head up Health and Human Services, has not denied accusations that he initiated inappropriate contact with his child’s nanny, and during one interview admitted that more incidents of impropriety would probably be revealed.

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Besides each of these candidates lacking qualifications in terms of experience and temperament, it appears that something else is going on here. By supporting these men as individuals he wants to lead his administration, Trump is working to reassert what he believes to be the rights of powerful men. The president-elect is seeking to surround himself with others like himself and to turn back the clock on personal and institutional accountability.

As Trump is not burdened by having any conscience or ethical code, his approach will change only if it becomes politically difficult. At such a point these nominees should be prepared for a special type of amnesia the president-elect suffers from in such cases :“I never knew him.”

Edward Dowd lives in Greenfield.