Last year, Donald Trump was found liable for sexually abusing and subsequently defaming writer E. Jean Carroll and was ordered to pay $5 million in damages. Eight months later, not only has Trump not gotten over the verdict, but he’s become increasingly obsessed with tearing Caroll down online.
On Wednesday, a court rejected Trump’s request to delay a second suit brought by Carroll. He responded Thursday by posting a bizarre attack against her and Judge Lewis A. Kaplan on Truth Social, writing, “Except for a Fraudulent Case against me, I had no idea who E. Jean Carroll was. She called her African American Husband an ‘ape,’ and named her Cat ‘Vagina.’ Look at her Tweets, Stories, and the CNN Interview about her. The Judge on the Case is another Highly Partisan Clinton-Appointed Friend. He should have recused himself long ago!”
That’s a pretty strange thing to post online, especially about a woman actively suing you for defamation for exactly those kinds of statements, but it’s not exactly unusual for Trump.
Where things get weird is in how he posted that exact same message another 30 times in under an hour.
In addition to a dozen or so other posts about Carroll, Trump cut & pasted the same caption and posted it dozens of times, attached to different photos and videos meant to smear Carroll. Many were screenshots of old tweets or quotes from a Vanity Fair interview. Most feature jokes or comments she’s made about sex, presumably meant to push the extremely antiquated victim-blaming idea that if a woman has and enjoys sex, then all sexual contact must be consensual and she can’t really be assaulted.
It should also be noted that in addition to other forms of journalism, Carroll was a sex advice columnist for decades. This, too, has nothing to do with being assaulted and Trump’s clear attempts to suggest otherwise are nothing but disgusting.
Also, a minor note but if Trump is going to invoke the name of Carroll’s cat so many times, he should at least put some respect on it and use her full name: Vagina T. Fireball.
(featured image: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
