Trump wanted to build an anti-#MeToo Cabinet -- but it's backfiring badly

Trump wanted to build an anti-#MeToo Cabinet — but it's backfiring badly
Gaetz gone, Hegseth going? It turns out repeated accusations of abuse and harassment don't look great on a résumé

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published December 5, 2024 6:00AM (EST)


(Salon) While this was never explicitly stated, one of Donald Trump's most obvious campaign promises to his mostly-male fan base was that he could bring American women to heel. From threats to "protect" women "whether the women like it or not" to his tour of "manosphere" podcasts to bemoaning the supposed victimization of convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein, the message of Trump '24 was simple: In his presidency, women will shut up and make you a sandwich. Like most Trump promises, whether spoken out loud or just implied, it was a lie. But as soon as he won the election, Trump tried to create the appearance of a new era of misogynist triumph by nominating Cabinet members credibly accused of rape and other forms of sexual misconduct.

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The case that's currently dominating the news cycle, however, is that of Pete Hegseth. Trump, in maximum-troll mode, selected this Fox News pretty boy to run the Defense Department, the nation's largest employer, with nearly 3.5 million enlisted and civilian personnel. It was swiftly revealed that Hegseth had settled out of court with a woman who accused him of rape in 2017. In recent days, we've learned about repeated adulteries, sexual harassment at his veterans' organization, and a 2018 letter from his mother accusing him of being an "abuser of women." As I reported on Monday, Hegseth, who is now on his third marriage, belongs to a Christian nationalist church that preaches an extreme form of female submission.

As Leigh Gilmore, the author of “The #MeToo Effect: What Happens When We Believe Women," told the New York Times, this kind of backstory is "appealing" to Trump, because "it normalizes his own behavior." Trump has been accused of sexual abuse or harassment by more than two dozen women, and was found liable for sexual assault in a civil trial last year. He almost certainly thinks that nominating someone like Hegseth is a winner with much of his base, especially the loud online contingent of men who constantly gripe about feminism. But this pro-creep agenda has already begun to backfire on Trump, weakening him politically weeks before he's even sworn into office.

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That's likely smart politics from Hegseth, because Trump clearly believes that pushing Kavanaugh onto the court, despite the fact that most Americans believed the allegation, was one of his greatest political triumphs. But Hegseth also talked out of both sides of his mouth, claiming, on one hand, that the poorly defined allegations against him are "made up" while also admitting to "kernels of truth." That gets at the heart of why the Kavanaugh hearings have become heroic mythology in the MAGA world. The Trumpist anger isn't over "false" accusations — it's anger that women have any right to make accusations, regardless of the truth. To complain about being "Kavanaughed" is to express outrage that women are allowed to speak up at all. .................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/12/05/wanted-to-build-an-anti-metoo-cabinet--but-its-backfiring-badly/