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In 2016, when Donald Trump was first elected president, today’s 18-year-olds were only 10. So when footage leaked of Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women in that year’s truly horrifying October surprise, they didn’t fully understand what the tape meant or know what to make of it, if they were even aware of it at all.
Now, Gen Z’s new voters are rediscovering the infamous Access Hollywood tape, with some hearing it in full for the first time. Young TikTokers are making videos reacting with somber faces to the audio of Trump’s tape, grimacing as he gets to the infamous line, “Grab ’em by the pussy.” The most popular one has nearly 1 million views.
“This is actually soooo crazyyy,” marvels a commenter on one such video. Adds another, “why is this not blown up more?!” Another: “I can’t even process this.” Dozens and dozens of them say: “Boost.” You can tell that the legions of new viewers and commenters think the tape is important and they want more people to see it, because it’s one of those Trump things the rest of us have mostly stopped talking about.
It’s become a truism among adults — particularly older, embittered Democrats — who have lived through the Trump era that “lol nothing matters.” No matter how depraved Trump’s words and actions are, it seems that nothing will stop his relentless, exhausting political momentum. That is the power of his countless scandals: so many of them are so far beyond where we naively thought the line of acceptable behavior was that it’s easy to become numb. It’s easy to allow yourself to forget Donald Trump’s multitude of sins.
Watching Gen Z absorb this particular Trump scandal anew for the first time, though, is a reminder that Trump’s misdeeds, particularly his decades of brazen, unapologetic sexual misconduct, still can and should shock. It’s worth remembering the specifics before we enter the voting booth in 2024, in an election that will almost certainly see millions of people voting for a known sexual abuser, and may well end with him back in the White House.
So let’s not forget.
Let’s not forget that Donald Trump bragged on a hot mic about sexually assaulting women, boasting, “And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Let’s not forget that Trump was found civilly liable just last year of sexually assaulting journalist E. Jean Carroll, with a jury concluding that a preponderance of evidence shows that he violently and nonconsensually forced himself on her.
Let’s not forget that Trump has been accused of sexual assault by at least 21 other women.
Let’s not forget that one of Trump’s accusers was his ex-wife Ivana, who said under oath that he violently and vindictively raped her. (She later said that she didn’t want her words to be taken in “a literal or criminal sense.”)
Let’s not forget that Donald Trump put a judge on the Supreme Court who had been accused of sexual assault by multiple women.
Let’s not forget that Donald Trump selected that justice and two others for the Court with the express purpose of demolishing a woman’s right to reproductive freedom. Let’s not forget that his Supreme Court did what it was designed to do and got rid of abortion’s legal protections.
Let’s not forget that after the Court demolished this right, Trump bragged that their decision was “only made possible because I delivered everything as promised, including nominating and getting three highly respected and strong Constitutionalists confirmed to the United States Supreme Court. It was my great honor to do so!”
That’s just some of what Trump’s done to women. There’s much more to remember.
One of the values of a fresh generation of political actors coming of age is that they can help the rest of us see tired old atrocities clearly and cleanly once again. The moral clarity of youth can be powerful; when the country is on the verge of reelecting a sexual offender, it becomes invaluable.
Maybe lol nothing matters. But let’s at least not forget any of it.
