Four of the 14 people Donald Trump has nominated for top roles in his administration have faced sex scandals, including three who have faced allegations of sexual abuse, according to a Daily Kos review. (The list of 14 nominees includes only those requiring Senate confirmation.)
Vanity Fair and The New York Times reported that Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, was accused of sexual assault in 2017 following an encounter he had in Monterey, California. Hegseth and his second wife were divorced the same year the assault allegation was made, CBS News reported.
The allegation, which was made to Monterey police, was unknown to Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Susie Wiles, ahead of the nomination, Vanity Fair reported. It’s yet another failure of her tenure less than a week since Trump chose her for the role.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick for secretary of health and human services, also has an untoward history with women.
In 2013, the New York Post reported that Kennedy kept a journal in which he detailed his sexual exploits with 37 different women, none of which were his wife at the time.
From the Post’s story:
Most women are identified only by their first name in the ledger.
They include a lawyer, an environmental activist, a doctor, and at least one woman married to a famous actor.
A Post reporter who questioned Kennedy on Friday about the diary was first met with six seconds of stunned silence.
The Post reported that his then-wife, Mary Richardson, was the one who found the journal. Richardson would later commit suicide amid their divorce proceedings.
In July, Politico reported that Kennedy apologized to a woman who accused Kennedy of forcibly groping her when she was a babysitter for his kids.
“I have no memory of this incident but I apologize sincerely for anything I ever did that made you feel uncomfortable or anything I did or said that offended you or hurt your feelings,” Kennedy texted the woman, who was in her 20s at the time of the alleged incident.
And during his since-failed presidential campaign, Kennedy had a digital affair with Olivia Nuzzi, a New York Magazine reporter who has since resigned after news of the relationship became public. The Daily Beast reported that Nuzzi sent Kennedy nude images of herself, which Kennedy bragged to others about possessing.
Then there’s now-former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump’s pick for attorney general, who was investigated by the Justice Department for alleged child sex trafficking.
The Republican-led House Ethics Committee also probed reports that Gaetz had inappropriate relationships with underaged girls, one of whom testified under oath before the committee that she had sex with Gaetz when she was 17.
And Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor whom Trump tapped to lead the Department of Homeland Security, allegedly had an extramarital affair with former Trump campaign aide Corey Lewandowski, the New York Post reported in 2023.
From the Post’s report:
Though no images of the two getting frisky are known to exist, the pair have been less than discreet about their relationship, with one source recalling them making out at a hotel bar during the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla.
“I remember it was so absurdly blatant and public,” said the person, who recalled Noem and Lewandowski getting “handsy” at the bar of the Hyatt Regency Orlando with between 100 and 200 others around.
“It wasn’t like 2 a.m.,” the source said. “It isn’t like we caught them at some dive bar miles away. It’s a lobby bar where everyone is staying and so there’s a bajillion political operatives and journalists and electeds around. I remember I saw it with my own eyes and a couple other people saw it and the blatantness was absurd.”
Of course, Trump himself is also an accused sexual abuser.
In 2023, a jury in New York found Trump liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in a Manhattan department store dressing room in 1996.
Trump has also faced allegations of sexual misconduct from dozens of women. Trump has denied their allegations. But don’t forget that he was caught on tape bragging about kissing women without their consent, saying, “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 pussy. You can do anything.”
Ultimately, Trump’s nominees are so corrupt and compromised that he is bypassing FBI background checks and instead using private companies to vet them—likely because his picks wouldn't pass an FBI screening with their baggage.
“Passing an FBI security clearance to be entrusted with our country’s most guarded secrets requires unquestionable loyalty to the United States, a test Trump and his cronies, who are the poster children of plutocratic globalization and ‘elite capture,’ know they could never pass,” Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland told the news outlet Government Executive.
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