A Democracy Drive Thread
Decades on the record — the Access Hollywood tape, the E. Jean Carroll verdicts, demeaning insults, and an administration that follows suit.
This thread compiles, in chronological order and with sources, Trump’s long record of misogyny and sexual misconduct toward women — from on-tape boasts and demeaning insults to a civil jury’s finding that he sexually abused the writer E. Jean Carroll — alongside the administration’s parallel moves against women’s standing. It distinguishes carefully between what he has said, what courts have found, and what others have alleged.
August 7, 2015
After Fox News’s Megyn Kelly pressed him at a debate about having called women “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals,” Trump told CNN that she had questioned him so aggressively because “there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” The remark drew bipartisan condemnation.
“There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”
October 7, 2016
The Washington Post published a 2005 hot-mic recording from Access Hollywood in which Trump bragged that his fame let him grope women without consent. He dismissed it as “locker room talk” and apologized; Billy Bush, the other voice on the tape, later confirmed its authenticity.
“And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. … Grab ’em by the pussy.”
October 12, 2016
In recordings from Howard Stern’s show, Trump boasted that as the pageants’ owner he would go backstage while contestants were undressed — referring to the adult Miss USA and Miss Universe contests. Separately, several former Miss Teen USA contestants said Trump walked into their dressing room while they were changing, some when they were as young as 15.
“I’m allowed to go in, because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it.”
October 19, 2016
In the final 2016 presidential debate, Trump leaned into his microphone to call Hillary Clinton “such a nasty woman” as she answered a policy question — one of a long line of gendered insults aimed at female opponents and critics.
“Such a nasty woman.”
May 9, 2023
A federal civil jury in New York found Trump liable for sexually abusing the writer E. Jean Carroll in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s, and for defaming her when he denied it, awarding her about $5 million.
January 26, 2024
In a separate trial over additional defamatory statements, a federal jury ordered Trump to pay E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million — the bulk of it punitive damages — for continuing to attack her after the first verdict.
August 28, 2024
Trump used his Truth Social account to repost an image of Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton captioned with a vulgar suggestion that both women had traded sexual favors for career advancement — a post even his own aides struggled to defend.
April 1, 2025
Back in office, the administration moved to take over Trump’s defense in the Carroll litigation — seeking to substitute the United States as defendant, which could wipe out the judgment since the government cannot be sued for defamation — and the DOJ opened an investigation into Carroll herself.
November 10, 2025
After losing at the Second Circuit, Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the 2023 jury finding that he sexually abused and defamed Carroll, again floating swapping in the Justice Department as defendant to moot the case.
November 14, 2025
Aboard Air Force One, when Bloomberg correspondent Catherine Lucey tried to follow up on the Epstein files, Trump pointed at her and said, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.” The White House defended it as the president being “frank and open”; he disparaged other female reporters as “ugly” and “stupid” around the same time.
“Quiet. Quiet, piggy.”