Do anything you wanna do


Haven’t we all forgotten something asks Steve Beauchampé?

In October, following a video where Donald Trump boasted that he had carried out multiple sexual assaults against females, around a dozen women came forward with allegations that they had been victims of unwanted sexual approaches from Trump. It appears that none of these alleged assaults are currently being investigated by any US law enforcement agencies, and certainly Trump has yet to be questioned over the claims.

Meanwhile, Trump has publicly threatened to sue his accusers, with each facing potential ruination given the likely costs of defending themselves in court (and that’s before we even consider the emotional and psychological trauma involved in defending themselves against the soon to be most powerful man in the world, one who has readily and repeatedly brutalised and demonised any woman who he thinks has slighted him).

So what does it tell us about the United States’ judicial system if such serious accusations are not even investigated, let alone the person accused being charged if there is evidence of possible guilt? What message does it send to any other woman who may be the victim of unwanted sexual approaches from the powerful and well connected? And what does it say about the oft heard claim that no one is so high as to be above the law?

And it is another reason to believe that the position of women in the USA has been set back decades by the election of Donald Trump as that country’s 45th President.