Believe women. The message should have been codified during the #MeToo 2010s after decades, if not centuries, of women reporting sexual assaults and authorities doing little to nothing to help them. Tangible proof of change was everywhere: Bill Cosby fell from grace. Harvey Weinstein wound up in jail. And though it took awhile, the Tate brothers are finally behind bars. Institutions would finally take claims of rape seriously, and young men would have a better understanding of consent and the consequences. Or not.

Last month, a former Cornell University student identified only as Jane Doe sued seven fraternity brothers and the university, claiming the school failed to protect her and punish the perpetrators. Doe says she was plied with drugs and alcohol and gang-raped by the men during a party at the Chi Phi fraternity house in 2024. Cornell conducted an internal investigation and suspended or expelled some of the men, but prosecutors did not bring criminal charges against any of the accused.

There's no point asking how we got back here, when President Trump himself is proof that some folks never budged in the first place. Trump said Friday that the accused men “won’t get a fair shake," in response to a reporter's questions about the case and the appointment of a special prosecutor, Letitia James. In painting the accused as victims, it appeared the president was speaking from personal experience. Trump was found liable in 2023 for sexual abuse and battery in a lawsuit filed by the writer E. Jean Carroll.

She said that in a dressing room in a high-end department store in 1995 or 1996, Trump pushed her against a wall, pulled down her tights and sexually assaulted and penetrated her before she was able to flee. In the civil trial, Carroll said that the assault made her "unable to have a romantic life again." She was awarded $5 million in damages. Trump still denies all wrongdoing, calling the allegations a "hoax" and the rulings politically motivated.

In 2005, when he was a reality TV host, Trump bragged on a hot mic about sexually assaulting women in his now infamous "Grab 'em by the pussy" boast. He promptly apologized when the recording was leaked before the 2016 election, only to walk it back after he won, suggesting the recording was a deepfake (it was not). And he expressed more than one well wish for Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime companion, after her arrest on a multitude of sex-related charges in 2020.

James, the New York state attorney general, will lead a criminal investigation into the Cornell Seven case after public backlash over the local district attorney declining to pursue charges. She won a $454-million judgment against Trump in 2024, with a judge finding that his businesses defrauded lenders by inflating assets. The financial penalty was later ruled "excessive” and wiped out, but the finding of business fraud still stands. Is it any wonder that Trump is siding with the men in the Cornell case?

And now, a second independent investigator has been brought on by a Cornell committee to look into the university's conduct. She is former federal prosecutor Sally Yates, who famously served as acting U.S. attorney general for 10 days in 2017, until Trump fired her for refusing to defend his administration's travel ban (aka the "Muslim ban").

The Cornell Seven became a national story when in September, Doe filed a 101-page lawsuit alleging that during the frat party, multiple men gave her alcohol and ketamine, then repeatedly sexually assaulted her. One of the men allegedly sent a message to a 50-person Snapchat group inviting his frat brothers to join in the attack. All of the Cornell Seven have denied wrongdoing. Doe's complaint alleges that the university only temporarily suspended some of the men and that others "were afforded the opportunity to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays.”Cornell denies that this was the only punishment it handed down.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that two of the fraternity brothers were expelled, two more were suspended, and one who had already graduated was barred from campus. The remaining men were handed lighter punishments. Considering Trump's track record of demonizing powerful women, there's little doubt that the appointment of James by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and the addition of Yates, will aid in his politicization of the Cornell Seven case. But the public outcry against the university and the accused men speaks volumes about how out of step the president is with many Americans who are willing to stand by a woman's claim of rape until proved otherwise.

Holding signs that read "Justice for Jane Doe," Cornell students staged a sit-in Wednesday and vowed to not spend any money on campus, in a statement against sexual violence and how the university has handled her case. It was one of many acts of protest by Cornell students. Over 60,000 alumni and supporters of the university also signed a petition pledging to withhold donations until Cornell meets their demands for transparency and reform in cases of sexual assaults. They represent a familiar refrain: Believe women.