Trump’s Comments on Sexual Assault Offensive and Unwanted

Breaking news: Donald Trump has tweeted something completely uneducated and offensive, making a further fool out of himself.

This shocking and totally unexpected headline refers to comments Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, made earlier this week in an interview with NBC host Matt Lauer, where he defended statements he made on twitter in 2013.

The tweet in question: “26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military–only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?” Oh, I’m not sure, Mr. Trump, but I’d imagine that they probably didn’t expect idiotic buffoons like you to blame victims rather than address guilty perpetrators.

Trump defended this tweet, claiming that, “It’s a correct tweet,” and that, “Many people think that it is absolutely correct.” This isn’t his only comment on the subject of women in the military either; He has previously argued that allowing women serve in combat positions directly leads to consequences, specifically sexual assault, which seemingly takes the blame off of the rapist and places it on the victim.

Am I the only one who is absolutely baffled by the fact that this man is currently running in an election to lead our country? That there is an actual, real threat of him potentially making executive decisions?

In direct response to his ignorant tweet, no, Trump; women are not to blame for military sexual assaults.

I don’t think this concept is particularly difficult to grasp, but apparently you might need a refresher: one generally accepted principle of life is that if you intentionally hurt someone– you are to blame. Allowing women into combat roles was a huge step for gender equality in the United States. The fact that, at one point, women weren’t allowed to make their own decision to fight for their country should be embarrassing to the United States. Their presence in the military is solely beneficial.

The issue here isn’t the fact that there are women in the military; the problem is that there still remain men in the military who feel entitled to take advantage of their counterparts. Where does this sense of entitlement come from?

To start, it comes from people like Donald Trump, making light of the issue, and from a society that perpetuates victim-blaming. Even if Trump didn’t intend to place the blame on women in the military, if he really just couldn’t manage to search around in his thick skull and find a proper way to discuss the issue, he’s still very much in the wrong for refusing to recognize rapists as being the real problem.

Additional crucial notes: One, women aren’t the only victims of sexual assault, and men aren’t the only perpetrators either. Two, as easy as it is to sit on the sidelines and criticize victims for not reporting abuse, it can actually be extremely difficult to put yourself out there like that – especially when there are boneheaded morons berating victims and insinuating that sexual assault is their fault.

It’s become blatantly clear to me why Trump’s ratings continue to drop. With every passing day, he manages to say something controversial and insulting. My guess: he’ll somehow find a way to offend each and every denomination of Americans before election day arrives.