Donald Trump has had an incredible influence on the USA during his time as president - and very little of it has been good. His incendiary rhetoric, homophobic/transphobic pronouncements, and misogynistic attitude towards any and all women have made him a poor representative for anyone who isn't a straight white man, and a dangerous influence for anyone who is.
Just one recent example of this is an incident which happened this weekend on a flight from Houston to Albuquerque. A female passenger on the plane, identified only as C.W., fell asleep during the trip, only to be awoken by the man behind her grabbing her breast. She initially thought it was an accident but, when the same thing happened half an hour later, she knew it was deliberate.
When confronted, the offender - identified as 49-year-old Bruce Michael Alexander - reportedly told authorities that he didn't do anything wrong because "the President of the United States says it’s ok to grab women by their private parts".
Alexander was of course making reference to the 2005 Access Hollywood interview during which Trump said:
"You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything ... Grab ’em by the p***y. You can do anything."
Trump would later be quoted as calling the discussion no more than "locker room talk", and eventually apologised in more detail in 2016.
"Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am," he said. "I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize. I’ve travelled the country talking about change for America, but my travels have also changed me."
Unfortunately, the damage was already done by that point, and Trump's ongoing treatment of women has done little to back up his claims that he has "changed" as a person.
In a complaint made by the victim during this recent incident, C.W. said that she could not understand why a stranger would think that it's ok to sexually touch another person without their consent.
"C.W. felt fingers slowly grab the back of her arm, squeezing above the elbow," the complaint said. Then, "slowly and ‘attentively,’ the hand groped her right side at and around her ribs and ‘bra line.’"
She then told him "she didn’t know why he thought it was ok [to touch her] and he needed to stop."
Alexander then made his statement alluding to Donald Trump when he was arrested by the FBI upon landing in Albuquerque.
This is unfortunately not the only time that the president has been quoted as justification for heinously offensive behaviour, either. Earlier this year, a white woman was caught on video calling a Hispanic mother and her son "rapists" and "animals" - two words that Trump has used to describe Mexican people before.
In this case, the offender was apprehended and kept in federal custody before a court appearance yesterday. He now has to return for a preliminary hearing and detntion hearing today, at which point he will learn what he has been charged with.
