President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed to be the "law and order president." But there is at least one crime that he appears to be okay with: domestic violence.
That became clear yesterday, when during a speech at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, Trump complained that domestic violence is inflating crime statistics. "Things that take place in the home, they call crime," he told the crowd. “They’ll do anything they can to find something. If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime, see? So now I can’t claim 100 percent [reduction in crime].”
As you may imagine, activists who support survivors of domestic violence promptly condemned Trump's comments. "The frequency and the harm [of domestic violence] is not paid enough attention to, and remarks such as the president’s certainly underscore that truth," said Dawn Dalton, executive director of the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence. "Domestic violence is a crisis that strikes at the core of our communities," Stephanie Love-Patterson, president and CEO of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, said in a statement, adding, “Behind every victim is a story of escalating coercion, fear, and violence that can’t be ignored or trivialized."
The White House, unsurprisingly, denied that the president was trying to downplay domestic violence. But as I wrote yesterday:
In fact, Trump has not only downplayed domestic violence through his speech, but also through his actions: His administration has cut millions of dollars in grants earmarked for victims of crime, including domestic violence, and has tried to force domestic violence service providers to agree to hand crime victims over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in order to receive federal dollars.
Hearing Trump's latest comments, I could not help but think of the infamous Access Hollywood tape. He seems to believe that, if you’re a man, “you can do anything” to women—and that you deserve to get away with it.
—Julianne McShane
P.S. Did you catch this weekend's episode of Reveal? It's about how ICE raids are unfolding across the country, as part of Trump's mass deportation agenda. Make sure to give it a listen wherever you get your podcasts.
