Trumps Two-Face War on Survivors

      

You can easily 

judge the character

of a person by 

how he treats 

those who can do

nothing for him.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

When it comes to the issue of sexual assault and our current President's position on the issue, the comic book character Two-Face comes to mind. The Batman nemesis is deeply conflicted. But so that I don't offend too many comic book lovers I will just present the "Two-Face" metaphor in a different way. In reality, the saying gets pinned on a person who wants to have life both ways. Someone who is one way to some people and another way to others.
On the last week of August, someone brought to my attention that the White House website had dropped the sexual assault report from 2014. It was discovered by Alexandra Brodsky, a civil rights attorney and co-founder of anti-sexual violence organization KnowYourIX.

“I went looking for it because I’m working on briefing for a client who’s a survivor and was looking for some literature about the impact of sexual violence and that’s been a really helpful resource for that kind of research,” Brodsky told HuffPost. “But it was no longer on the White House website. It’s not anywhere on the White House website.”- Sexual Assault Report Drops From White House Site, Remains On Obama Archive

HuffPost updated their article to include where the report could be found for those who wanted to see it. The 2014 resource has been removed and placed on the Obama Archive website. But this action by the Trump administration doesn't help survivors and advocates to worry less about their rights. 

Donald Trump has used the word "rapist" as an attack tool to stir his base and give them cause to
follow to his agenda. No doubt as a former Democrat he has learned what issues can incense the public.

Central Park 5 standing trial for rape of jogger in New York

In 1989 Trump inserted himself into one of the most brutal sexual assaults of it's time. Five young teens had been arrested for the brutal beating and rape of a jogger in Central Park. Trump lit the match in the case later labeled: The Central Park Five. He took out a full page ad calling for the death penalty to be brought back, and expressing his hate for the young boys.

"You better believe that I hate the people that took this girl and raped her brutally; you better believe it and it's more than anger, its hatred and I want society to hate them."- Donald Trump.

In 2002 when the real perpetrator confessed to the crime and when his confession was backed up with

Full page ad Trump took out on accused boys.

DNA evidence, the young men (who had been convicted by coerced confessions) were exonerated. Trump's obsession for his idea of justice never wavered. In fact when the falsely accused men were compensated by the city of New York, Trump took to Twitter and wrote a full editorial in the Daily News, calling it a disgrace.

After Trump descends on a escalator in Trump Tower to announce his bid to run for the presidency, he again used "rape" as a tool to spur his campaign on by denouncing Mexicans as rapists, and calling for a wall to be built to stop the flow of illegal immigration into the US.

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
–Real estate mogul Donald Trump, presidential announcement speech, June 16, 2015

Inserting rape as a political tool seemed to be a way for him to build his base and rally voters. Trump would attack Hillary Clinton on her husband's involvement with Monica Lewinski, and digging up Bill Clinton's past with other women after he himself had been accused by other women of rape, and had been caught on audio tape making a rape-joke confession. Trump held a press conference with 4 women who would also be invited to one of the debates sitting front row to stare Hillary down, and throw her off her game. -Trump appears with Bill Clinton accusers before debate. CNN Politics

Trump supporters disrupt a Clinton Rally with shouts of "Rapist"

At the same time, Trump operatives including Alex Jones, Breitbart News, and Fox News, were stirring the pot with accusations of the Clinton's running a sex trafficking ring beneath a pizza place. It was a lie that some die-hard Trump followers would continue to tweet about even after the scandal was debunked. Others would interrupt Hillary rallies by shouting "Bill Clinton is a rapist," at the top of their lungs. They were taking a cue from candidate Trump, and using a social issue against those who questioned his behavior. Many of us who firmly believe that sexual assault should never be used as a political tool, watched in dismay, as the truth about this issue became over shadowed by those who were in the fight for a political win at any cost. After Trump won the presidency, not another word was spoken about the issue of sexual assault from him unless it was to double down on fears of immigration.

Since President Donald Trump took office, Title IX — the federal civil rights law that prevents sex and gender discrimination in education, has come under scrutiny. Betsy DeVos, who has donated to groups that are dismissive of sexual assault survivors, comes off as though she's trying to fix the problems with the landmark law, but her willingness to meet with anti Title IX advocates seems to give an impression that the Trump administration will do a quiet dismantling of this law on college campuses. A tell-tale sign is DeVos's unhappiness with the Title IX under the Obama presidency has been her  appointment of Candice Jackson. Jackson has pulled no punches about her feelings on sexual assault, and has been privately expressing her intent to begin a process that could potentially end a 2011 directive that lays out the Title IX guidelines that Universities must follow when a student reports a sexual assault. Just recently DeVos proclaimed with a lot of gas lighting. "If everything is sexual harassment, then nothing is."

Trump has also come out denouncing women who accused the late Roger Ailes of sexual harassment in the workplace.

"I can tell you that some of the women that are complaining, I know how much he's helped them. And even recently," the Republican presidential nominee told Meet the Press host Chuck Todd. "And when they write books that are fairly recently released, and they say wonderful things about him. And now all of a sudden they're saying these horrible things about him. -- It's very sad. Because he's a very good person. I've always found him to be just a very, very good person. And by the way, a very, very talented person. Look what he's done. So I feel very badly."- 

 Donald Trump (with actress Arianne Zucker .

You can probably discover something about a person's character when you see who he is willing to defend. Protecting rape victims is not on Trump's agenda, as he feigned back in 1989. But the personality of this president seems to be one that exploits a person's outrage or fear of rape, as well as excusing his own behavior.
On this issue of sexual assault, (Like a few others) Trump has been on both sides of it. He has been both angry, and dismissive. He is ready to send down fire from the sky against those he hates on the subject, but then defend his own actions when he's caught on a hot mic as "Locker room talk. Two-faced people usually can't be trusted to tell the truth. And their sole agenda is do whatever they want to, while placing the place on others.

When someone shows you who they are the first time, believe them.- Maya Angelou

Special Thanks to:

Sue Vargo @Suvee85 on Twitter for the article :White House quietly removes sexual assault report  from website

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