This huge award to Carroll will make Trump pause—however solely till he finds the following goal to go after.
On Friday, Jan. 26, a Manhattan jury awarded Elizabeth Jean Carroll $83.3 million for defamation by former President Donald J. Trump. In the event you’re considering, Wait, what? Didn’t we simply do that? you aren’t alone. Lower than a yr in the past, in Could 2023, a civil jury discovered that Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll 30 years in the past in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room, then defamed Carroll in statements he made in 2022. The defamation got here from Trump’s repeated denial of the assault and his accusations claiming Carroll was mendacity. Carroll was awarded damages of $5 million in that 2023 resolution; Trump has since appealed that award.
This most up-to-date resolution was for damages for defamatory statements Trump made earlier, in 2019, again when Carroll first revealed her memoir revealing the assault, and for statements made after the 2023 resolution. The one situation at this trial was the quantity of damages Carroll can be owed for the destruction to her status from statements Trump made. The sexual assault couldn’t be re-argued and was legally assumed to have occurred.
Past the Carroll case, Trump and his staff are nonetheless awaiting the end result of a civil fraud trial introduced by New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James, who’s requesting a $370 million penalty on the previous president. Ninety-one felony fees, a part of 4 felony indictments, additionally loom.
Will This Jury Award Make a Distinction?
As Trump continued to disclaim the assault and denigrate Carroll proper as much as the latest trial, some puzzled how a lot cash it might take to close him up. It must be famous that Carroll’s legal professionals have amended her grievance to hunt damages for extra defamatory statements made since Could 2023. This steered {that a} monetary ache level of some quantity can be enough to discourage Trump’s assaults.
Carroll celebrated the ruling, and thanked her legal professionals. “This can be a nice victory for each girl who stands up when she’s been knocked down and an enormous defeat for each bully who has tried to maintain a lady down,” she stated in a press release.
Nonetheless, we are able to ask, if $5 million—final yr’s award—was not sufficient, will $83.3 million do it? I say no; I’d be shocked if now we have reached the purpose of deterrence.
Protecting the Carroll story entrance and middle has been great for the Trump model. Sure, final yr’s jury discovered he sexually assaulted her; for many Individuals, in fact, that’s an enormous Ugh, however the darkish underbelly dog-whistle code of masculinity says, What may very well be extra ‘he-man’ than forcing your self on a lady? Trump’s machismo and gender-baiting have been middle stage throughout his whole tenure on the nationwide political stage. Keep in mind the Entry Hollywood tapes? The Hillary Clinton stalking and slurs? The charming Megyn Kelly blood dialogue?
Whereas Trump will undoubtedly cease attacking Carroll by identify, I’d wager there’s nearly no sum of money that may cease Trump from misogynistic feedback. Trump’s very model is dominance—particularly a crude macho dominance. Trump’s favourite take-downs query the ‘masculinity’ of male opponents or assault ladies with old-school tropes (their ‘attractiveness’ or lack thereof, the tone of their voices, their physique components and so forth). This isn’t a candidate operating on wonky coverage prescriptions, in spite of everything.
Persevering with anti-female slurs yield advantages in Trump’s world. It permits him to display his absence of political correctness, however much more importantly, it presents him excellent alternatives to wave the flag of poisonous masculinity.
The Demonization of Femininity as an Election Software
In order for you extra proof that the Trump model wants male dominance and the swaggering type evidenced by his Carroll defamations, look no additional than Ron DeSantis. Headlines blared on Jan. 22, the day the brand new Carroll trial opened: “The Emasculation of Ron DeSantis.”
The ultra-conservative Harvard-educated Florida governor, as soon as seen as the following neatest thing on the Republican political stage, ended his presidential bid after one main. How did Trump get at him?
The Trump marketing campaign used what he sees as the last word slurs potential in opposition to a person: that DeSantis was female. The Trump staff steered DeSantis was a 10-year-old woman in her mom’s excessive heels, that he would ‘cuck himself,’ that he wanted a ‘sugar daddy,’ that he didn’t have testicles, and that he could be homosexual—to say just some selection phrases.
Positive, DeSantis might have had different liabilities; however the line of assault utilized by Trump, and the success of that strategy, confirmed as soon as extra that the Trump misogyny model works simply nice. This huge award to Carroll will make Trump pause—however solely till he finds the following goal to go after. Keep tuned for Trump the Model: Nikki Haley version.
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