Donald Trump and future wife Melania pose with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. (Davidoff Studios / Getty Images)
Elie v. U.S. / October 30, 2026
In this week’s Elie v. U.S., our justice correspondent asks why the media is obsessing over Obama’s Cheesecake Factory joke while largely ignoring allegations of Trump’s sexual assaults.
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The president of the United States of America has been accused of rape. Again. The president of the United States has been accused of rape in a report issued by the Democrats of the House Judiciary Committee, as part of their ongoing investigation of Donald Trump’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein. The president has been accused of raping two women, one when she was as young as 13, and sexually assaulting three more. They are among 11 women who provided evidence or testimony that Trump “abused, assaulted, and even raped numerous women alongside, and in coordination with, the most infamous sex trafficker in history.”
I have been made to understand that many people do not know about the Judiciary Comittee report—and the fact that five women have accused Trump of sexual assault while in or near the presence of noted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. I have been made to understand that this is because the mainstream media finds former president Barack Obama’s comments about the [checks notes] Cheesecake Factory more worthy of their attention than the current president’s abuse of multiple women.
If asked, mainstream media types would no doubt argue that the lack of coverage of these latest rape allegations stems from the fact that previous rape allegations failed to “move the needle.” Trump’s sexual misconduct (both alleged and litigated) is “baked in” to people’s understanding of the man. People either won’t believe the charges or won’t care—or else they do believe the women and do care and vote accordingly—but everybody knows what he’s been accused of, generally speaking at least.
I find this line of argument unadulterated bollocks that reveals the deep failure of our mainstream media. It is news when the president is credibly accused of rape. It is important news. While I, too, don’t think these latest sexual assault accusations will materially change the national conversation about Trump or his presidency, that is not an excuse for ignoring, downplaying, or skipping over brutal allegations that he repeatedly assaulted women, including minors.
Journalists cannot decide what other people think is important. Their job is to illuminate what they think is in the public interest. I think reporting on rape allegations levied against the president of the United States is in the public interest. And since I think that, it really doesn’t matter if the public agrees with me.
With that in mind, I, unlike people who work for Bari Weiss, read the Judiciary report. Here are some of the allegations:
- Beatrice Keul, a former Miss Switzerland, accuses Trump of raping her at the Plaza Hotel in November 1993. She describes the rape as “brutal.”
- Stacey Williams says that Trump groped her at Trump Tower while standing next to Jeffrey Epstein.
- Jill Harth claims that Trump forcibly kissed her at Mar-a-Lago; her allegations are corroborated by her former spouse. Harth also claims that Trump assaulted another woman, Lauren Petrella.
- “Katie Johnson,” not her real name, claims that Trump and Epstein repeatedly raped her at Epstein’s New York residence in 1994, when she was just 13.
- An unnamed Jane Doe claims Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1980s, when she was 13. She says Trump forcibly moved her head to his exposed penis and hit her when she resisted his assault. She reported these allegations to the FBI.
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