Do not let Donald Trump run for president after the rape trial

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }} {{ message }} {{ /verifyErrors }} {{ ^verifyErrors }} Something went wrong. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }}

Donald Trump will be the focus of a civil rape trial in New York this week.

Journalist and author E Jean Carroll accused the former president of raping her in a dressing room at a department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s. Trump has denied the allegation, infamously claiming that Carroll "was not [his] type" (someone ‘not being your type’ as a defence for rape lives in the same sphere as ‘well, what was she wearing?’). However, Trump’s bizarre protestation has even more holes in it. When shown a picture of Carroll from the 1990s – the same woman who was apparently ‘not his type’ – Trump said: "That’s my wife," confusing her with his ex-wife Marla Maples.

It is thought that Carroll will not be alone in claiming Donald Trump assaulted her. Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff are expected to testify during the trial, saying that the one-term president sexually assaulted them. Leeds has alleged that Trump grabbed her breast and tried to reach up her skirt on a flight to New York.

"He’s grabbing my breasts. He’s trying to kiss me. I’m trying to get his hands off me. And this struggle … it’s when he starts putting his hand up my skirt that I get a jolt of strength and manage to wiggle out of the seat.” Donald Trump says none of this took place.

Stoynoff claims that the businessman grabbed her, pushed her against a wall and forced his tongue down her throat at Mar-a-Lago. Donald Trump and his team say this did not happen. He acknowledged the accusation at a rally in Florida , refuting the claim saying: "She said I made inappropriate advances. And by the way, the area was a public area, people all over the place. Take a look. You take a look. Look at her. Look at her words. Tell me what you think. I don’t think so."

Donald Trump previously stated in the headline-grabbing Access Hollywood tape that he is "automatically attracted to beautiful... I just start kissing them. 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 pussy. You can do anything." He has been accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women. He has denied all of these accusations.

Despite the fact a former president is being sued for alleged rape, with testimonies expected from other women also accusing him of sexual assault, this has largely faded into the background of the public’s collective consciousness. There is far less of a commotion around Donald Trump being on trial in a rape lawsuit than there was for his hush money payments over his supposed affair with Stormy Daniels. I don’t just say this as a journalist and, you know, human living on Earth, I say this as an expert in news trends.

It always shocks me how not shocked people are upon hearing about rape accusations. One out of six American women have been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime, so perhaps this is the bleak reason for the weariness with which we consume news around sexual assault. Trump fatigue is certainly understandable; he’s not president any more, Biden is probably going to beat him next year, let his Fake News become Old News. But of course we can’t. Not only does this trial deserve to be heard, but Donald Trump still wields immense power, both in the states and globally.

Any harks of ‘why now?’ can be quashed. The rape accusation made by E Jean Carroll, and ones related to it regarding defamation, have been ongoing since 2019. There was also the passage of the Adult Survivors Act in New York last year, making it easier for people to come forward about historic assault cases in a civil avenue. So when this window opened – for just one year – Carroll filed a new lawsuit against Trump.

It’s all too easy to fall into the trap of ranking the ‘badness’ of allegations, but this misses the point entirely. You cannot compare the impact of rape to those of ineffective international policies. Suggesting that a president paying off a woman to keep them quiet about an affair is incomparable to a woefully incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan may be true, but is not the conclusion I strive for when suggesting people don’t care enough about this civil rape trial.

I am painfully sad and angry that we care so little about women and our stories that a man accused of rape and other assaults is allowed to be such a powerful figure head of the Republican Party, the party with control of the House of Representatives. Whether or not Donald Trump is guilty of rape – something he has consistently denied – should not detract from the fact there are over 20 other accusations of sexual assault against him.

Donald Trump is running for president again in 2024, even if he ends up doing so from prison. There are, of course, plenty of half-hearted attempts among the GOP to stop him, but none of the meager bids are causing big enough waves to stop him being the Republican front-runner, with 53 percent currently supporting his candidacy . Ron Desantis, currently the biggest-name ticket, is floundering, despite his best efforts to throw absurd buzzword-issues at the wall to see what sticks.

Simply put, Donald Trump should not be allowed to run for president. The setting of brazen precedents is a dangerous path to go down. However, in the case of Donald Trump, we are looking at a man who no sooner after being arrested is facing a civil case for alleged rape. By allowing him to run again, the GOP is boldly saying – we don’t care. As the party that has been at the forefront of dismantling protections and provisions for women, I know they don’t care about me, but this may be the clearest sign yet that they couldn’t care less about women.