Last week, the direction of the Trump campaign took a major turn when a 2005 video surfaced of the businessman-turned-presidential candidate boasting about how his celebrity privilege has allowed him to grope women and kiss them whether they want it or not. "I just start kissing them," he told former Access Hollywood host Billy Bush. "It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the p*ssy.”
To be clear, the idea that anyone is entitled to a woman's body—regardless of consent, which, in this instance there was none—is the pervasive foundation of rape culture. Donald Trump's initial response to public outrage over the newly discovered clip—to dismiss his comments as mere "locker room banter"—didn't pass muster with many women. Trump was pressed on whether he had acted on his comments during the second presidential debate. "No, I have not," he said. That answer has been challenged, however, by more than a handful of women who've since come forward with claims of sexual assault. While Trump has continued to deny these allegations, the floodgates have opened for women to share their accounts of his inappropriate behavior. To help keep track of these numerous instances, we created a timeline that details instances of Trump's alleged predatory behavior—which we will continue to update as we approach Election Day.
Early 1980s: Jessica Leeds Before Trump had his own fleet of private planes, he flew commercial, and on one trip he allegedly groped and made unwanted advances on then-38-year-old businesswoman Jessica Leeds. Leeds, who sat first class next to Trump, recalls that after they finished their meal, he lifted up the armrest and began groping her. “He was like an octopus,” she told The New York Times. “His hands were everywhere. It was an assault.” Leeds relocated seats instead of speaking up, as cultural attitude in those days towards sexual assault placed the blame on victims. “We accepted it for years,” Leeds said of similar unwanted advances. “We were taught it was our fault.”
__1989: Ivana Trump Back when Ivana Trump was divorcing Donald, his former wife detailed a gruesome "rape" scene in a disposition that was later cherry-picked for reporter Harry Hurt III's 1993 book Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump. The alleged incident occurred after Trump was upset about the results of a scalp reduction surgery to remove a bald spot, which was done by his wife's plastic surgeon. "Your fucking doctor has ruined me!” he allegedly said before ripping out fistfuls of Ivana's hair, stripping her clothes and unzipping his pants. “Then he jams his penis inside her for the first time in more than sixteen months. Ivana is terrified… It is a violent assault,” Hurt writes, as The Daily Beast reports. “According to versions she repeats to some of her closest confidantes, ‘he raped me.’” Trump later dismissed the claim as false and The Trump Organization special counsel Michael Cohen defended him, saying, “You cannot rape your spouse. And there’s very clear case law.”
1992: A 10-year-old Girl Another damaging Trump video that's emerged during the election cycle is a 1992 segment for Entertainment Tonight where Trump made sexually suggestive remarks about a 10-year-old girl. Yes, really. While spotting the girl in front of an escalator, Trump quipped, "I’m going to be dating her in ten years. Can you believe it?" To add even more disturbing perspective to this event, his daughter Ivanka Trump was also 10 years old at the time—though he's since joked that he would be dating her too, if she wasn't his daughter.
1993: Vendela Kirsebom When Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter invited Trump to the 1993 White House Correspondents' Dinner, it turned out to be a nightmare. Trump was seated next to Swedish model Vendela Kirsebom and harassed her all evening, to the point where she apparently asked to be moved. "After 45 minutes she came over to my table, almost in tears, and pleaded with me to move her," recalls Carter. "It seems that Trump had spent his entire time with her assaying the 'tits' and legs of the other female guests and asking how they measured up to those of other women, including his wife. 'He is,' she told me, in words that seemed familiar, 'the most vulgar man I have ever met.'"
1993 - Jill Harth That same year, Trump also allegedly subjected makeup artist Jill Harth to a "steady string of sexual assaults, as The Guardian reports. He allegedly groped her under a dinner table at the Plaza Hotel's Oak Room and, later, he allegedly pinned her against a wall in one of his children's bedrooms and and groped her. “He pushed me up against the wall, and had his hands all over me and tried to get up my dress again,” Harth recalled, “and I had to physically say: ‘What are you doing? Stop it.’ It was a shocking thing to have him do this because he knew I was with George, he knew they were in the next room. And how could he be doing this when I’m there for business?” Harth later formally accused Trump of attempted rape in a 1997 lawsuit.
1994: A 13-year-old Girl Before Leeds and Crooks spoke out with sexual assault allegations against Trump, he was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl in the apartment of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The case, which was recently filed for the third time in New York City, where the alleged rape occurred, consists of two affidavits filed by “Joan Doe” and “Tiffany Doe” which corroborate the victim's story, as Buzzfeed reports. "Joan" says she was told about the assault after it happened, while "Tiffany"—who was apparently hired as a "recruiter" to bring young girls to Epstein's apartment—alleges Trump and Epstein raped the victim more than once. Trump's attorney has denied these accusations, though more information on the case may yet unfold—a hearing has been set for this December in New York.
1996: Five or Six Models The latest accusation of Trump's inappropriate behavior towards women comes from Lisa Boyne, a health food business entrepreneur who apparently shared a dinner from hell with Trump. Boyne recalls to The Huffington Post that she and a friend, along with "five or six models," were seated at a semi-circular table with Trump. When the models wanted to get up to leave, Trump refused to get up to let them do so, instead forcing them to walk on top of the table where he “stuck his head right underneath their skirts,” per Boyne's account, and remarked on their underwear and genitalia. “It was the most offensive scene I’ve ever been a part of,” Boyne said. “I wanted to get the heck out of there.”
1996: Alicia Machado While Trump's behavior towards former Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado wasn't physically sexual, it was the definition of predatory and verbally abusive behavior. "He was very overwhelming. I was scared of him. He'd yell at me all of the time," says Machado in a video clip executed by Hillary Clinton's campaign. "He'd tell me, 'You look ugly,' or, 'You look fat.' Sometimes he'd 'play' with me and say, 'Hello, Miss Piggy,' 'Hello, Miss Housekeeping.'" Trump also body-shamed Machado when she gained 40 pounds after winning her title, which led to her developing eating disorders. "Long after, I was sick with eating disorders," she recalls. "I wouldn't eat, and would still see myself as fat because a powerful man said so. This is a man who doesn't realize the damage he causes."
After Machado told her story, Trump reacted by slut-shaming her.
1997: Five Miss Teen USA Contestants Back in 1997, Trump created discomfort for at least five teenage Miss USA contestants—including one who was as young as 15—when he visited their dressing room as they were changing. “I remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a man in here,’” former Miss Vermont Teen USA Mariah Billado told Buzzfeed. His response, according to Billado, was something along the lines of “Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve seen it all before.” Other contestants referred to the incident to Buzzfeed as "shocking" and "creepy." While 11 of the other contestants from that year's pageant told Buzzfeed they don't remember the incident, Trump has gone on the record bragging about his access to dressing rooms before. “I’ll tell you the funniest is that I’ll go backstage before a show and everyone’s getting dressed,” he told Howard Stern. “No men are anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in, because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it. … ‘Is everyone OK?’ You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. ‘Is everybody OK?’ And you see these incredible looking women, and so I sort of get away with things like that.”
2003: A 12-year-old Paris Hilton Another underage girl Trump found attractive was the daughter of family friends, the Hiltons. In 2003, Trump went on the record in an interview with Howard Stern about how he found the then-12-year-old Paris Hilton—a girl he had known since she was a child—hot. "Now, somebody who a lot of people don’t give credit to but in actuality is really beautiful is Paris Hilton," he said, before admitting to watching Hilton's sex tape. "I’ve known Paris Hilton from the time she’s 12, her parents are friends of mine, and the first time I saw her she walked into the room and I said, ‘Who the hell is that?’”
2003: Mindy McGillivray When then-23-year-old Mindy McGillivray visited Trump's Mar-a-Lago with a friend, she had an unfortunate encounter with Donald Trump. While standing next to his then-fiancée Melania, McGillivray recalled to the Palm Beach Post, "All of a sudden I felt a grab, a little nudge. I think it’s Ken’s camera bag, that was my first instinct. I turn around and there’s Donald. He sort of looked away quickly. I quickly turned back, facing Ray Charles, and I’m stunned.’’
2005: Rachel Cooks The same year Trump made his appalling remarks about kissing women whether or not they wanted it, he did exactly what he allegedly described to Rachel Cooks. The receptionist at a real estate firm in Trump Tower detailed the incident to The New York Times, saying Trump “kissed me directly on the mouth” as she was waiting for an elevator in the building. Like Leeds, Cooks was fearful of telling anyone at the time. “I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that,” she told the Times. She was relieved when she later saw Trump's 2005 interview with Bush. “I was upset that it had happened to other people, but also took some comfort in knowing I wasn’t the only one he had done it to,” she said. “People should know...this behavior is pervasive and it is real.”
2005: Natasha Stoynoff A writer for People has described her alleged assault by Trump in detail. "We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us. I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat...During the presidential debate, Donald Trump lied about kissing women without their consent. I should know. His actions made me feel bad for a very long time...I’m not sure what locker room talk consists of these days. I only know that I wasn’t in a locker room when he pushed me against a wall. I was in his home, as a professional, and his beautiful pregnant wife was just upstairs." Trump has since denied Stoynoff's account.
2012: A Hostess at the Trump National Golf Club In 2012, a lawsuit was brought against by former employees for insufficient meal or rest breaks—but it revealed a lot more about what it was like to work at one of his establishments. At the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., sexism was apparently the norm. Women were fired for not being hot enough—or hidden by management who lacked the heart to fire talented workers just because of their appearance—and retired if they were deemed too old. "I had witnessed Donald Trump tell managers many times while he was visiting the club that restaurant hostesses were 'not pretty enough' and that they should be fired and replaced with more attractive women,” former catering director Hayley Strozier told The LA Times in their investigation of the lawsuit. One complaint, however, that's in line with Trump's long history of reportedly sexually harassing and assaulting women, was that he was "overly familiar and unprofessional." According to former restaurant manager Charles West, when Trump saw “a young, attractive hostess working named Nicole" on one of his visits, he "directed that she be brought to a place where he was meeting with a group of men. After this woman had been presented to him, Mr. Trump said to his guests something like, 'See, you don't have to go to Hollywood to find beautiful women,'" adding, "He also turned to Nicole and asked her, ‘Do you like Jewish men?’"
Source: http://www.glamour.com/story/a-history-timeline-of-donald-trump-sexual-assault
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10/13/2016
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