August 2, 2016

Donald Trump Made Boneheaded Comments About Sexual Harassment. Then His Son Made It Worse.

Just…don’t.

Mary Altaffer/AP

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Polling shows Donald Trump trailing far behind Hillary Clinton among female voters—and recent comments by the GOP nominee and his son Eric aren’t likely to help him win over women.

In the wake of Roger Ailes’ ignominious fall from the helm of Fox News over allegations that he sexually harassed multiple women at the network, Trump has faced questions about the scandal and his own views on workplace harassment. Trump’s response has been that the allegations against Ailes (a friend of the GOP nominee) seem overblown. 

In an interview with USA Today published on Monday, Trump was asked how he would feel if his daughter Ivanka were subjected to the kind of harassment that women at Fox allegedly experienced. His response, Powers wrote, was “startling, even by Trumpian standards.” He didn’t call for the harasser to be punished; rather, he said, “I would like to think she would find another career or find another company if that was the case.”

On Tuesday, Trump’s son Eric appeared on CBS This Morning to defend his father’s recent comments but ended up just digging the two in deeper. “I think what he’s saying is, Ivanka is a strong, powerful woman” who wouldn’t “allow herself to be subjected to that,” he said.

He seemed to be suggesting that strong women don’t face sexual harassment in the first place and that women who do experience it are somehow weak. None other than Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly—an alleged victim of Ailes’ unwanted advances—summed up her dismay with Eric Trump’s comments in a one word tweet.  

Neither Trump nor his son seemed to consider the fact that Ivanka may have, in fact, had to navigate the issue of harassment at work. But according to her own book, early in her career Ivanka did worry about catcalling from construction workers and the male-dominated world of real estate. She even tried to change her appearance to ward off harassment.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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