Generation Z rediscovers Trump’s Access Hollywood video on TikTok

In 2016, when Donald Trump was first elected president, today’s 18-year-olds were only 10 years old. So when footage leaked of Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women in the truly gruesome October surprise that year, they didn’t quite understand what the tape meant. or know what to think of it, if they were aware of it at all.

Now Gen Z’s new voters are rediscovering the infamous Access to Hollywood band, some of which were hearing it in full for the first time. Creating young TikTokers videos reacting to the audio of Trump’s tape with somber facesgrim when he gets to the infamous line: “Grab them by the pussy.” The most popular has been viewed almost 1 million times.

“This is actually soooo crazy,” marvels one commentator on such a video. Adds another: “Why isn’t this blown up more?!” Another: “I can’t even process this.” Dozens and dozens say, “Boost.” You can tell that the legions of new viewers and commentators think the tape is important and they want more people to see it because it’s one of those Trump things that the rest of us mostly stop talking about.

Among adults — especially older, embittered Democrats — who lived through the Trump era, it has become a commonplace that “fun doesn’t matter.” No matter how depraved Trump’s words and actions are, it seems nothing can stop his relentless, exhausting political momentum. That’s the power of his countless scandals: so many of them go so far beyond where we naively thought the line of acceptable behavior was that it’s easy to become numb. It’s easy to allow yourself to forget Donald Trump’s multitude of sins.

But the fact that Gen Z is reabsorbing this particular Trump scandal for the first time is a reminder that Trump’s misdeeds, especially his decades of brazen, unapologetic sexual misconduct, can and should still shock. It’s worth remembering the details before we enter the voting booth in 2024, in an election in which millions of people will almost certainly vote for a known sex abuser, and which may end with him back in the White House.

Let’s not forget that Donald Trump used a high-powered microphone to brag about sexually assaulting women, boasting, “And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”

Let’s not forget that Trump was found civilly liable last year for sexually assaulting journalist E. Jean Carroll, with a jury concluding that a preponderance of evidence showed that he forced himself on her by force and without mutual consent.

Let’s not forget that Trump has been accused of sexual assault by at least 21 other women.

Let’s not forget that one of Trump’s accusers was his ex-wife Ivana said under oath that he had violently and vengefully raped her. (She later said she did not want her words to be taken in a “literal or criminal sense.”)

Let’s not forget that Donald Trump appointed a Supreme Court judge who has been accused of sexual assault by several women.

Let us not forget that Donald Trump selected this judge and two others to the Court for the express purpose destroying women’s right to reproductive freedom. Let’s not forget that his Supreme Court did what it was intended to do and struck down legal protections for abortion.

Let us not forget that after the Court annulled this right, Trump bragged that their decision “was only made possible because I delivered on everything as promised, including appointing and confirming three highly respected and strong constitutionalists to the Supreme Court of the United States. It was a great honor for me to be able to do this!”

That’s just part of what Trump has done to women. There is much more to remember.

One of the values ​​of a new generation of political actors coming of age is that they can help the rest of us see old atrocities clearly again. The moral clarity of youth can be powerful; when the country is about to re-elect a sex offender, it becomes invaluable.

Maybe nothing matters. But at least let’s not forget any of it.