First Lady Michelle Obama live in Manchester, New Hampshire | Hillary Clinton on YouTube – speech about Trump, sexual predation, and women's experiences |
Donald Trump, an American businessman and current President of the United States, has been accused of sexual assault and sexual harassment by at least fifteen women since the 1980s. Three of those women filed lawsuits, which were eventually withdrawn, alleging that they were sexually assaulted by Trump. Additionally one accuser filed a defamation lawsuit in 2017 after Trump called her a liar. In addition to these lawsuits, Trump has also been publicly accused of non-consensual kissing, or non-consensual groping of breasts, buttocks and genitalia, by at least twelve more women.
Several of these allegations preceded Trump's candidacy for president, but many more arose during that campaign, when a 2005 recording was leaked. Trump was recorded bragging that a celebrity like himself "can do anything" to women, including "just start kissing them ... I don't even wait" and "grab 'em by the pussy". During the October 9, 2016 second presidential debate, two days after the recording was leaked, Trump denied that his recorded comments described sexual assault and denied ever inappropriately touching a woman. Many of his accusers stated that these denials provoked them into going public with their allegations.
A third type of accusation women have made, primarily after the 2016 debate, was of Trump entering dressing rooms of beauty pageant contestants in 1997, 2000, 2001, and 2006, while they were in various stages of undress, a practice that Trump admitted to during a 2005 interview on The Howard Stern Show. This practice allegedly extended to Miss Teen USA; several former participants in that pageant allege that Trump walked into the dressing rooms of girls as young as 15.
Trump has denied the allegations, saying that he has been the victim of media bias, conspiracies, and a political smear campaign. In October 2016, Trump publicly vowed to sue all of the women who have made allegations of sexual assault or sexual harassment against him, as well as to sue the New York Times for publishing allegations, but never followed through.