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New Delhi:
US President-elect Donald Trump has been making headlines with new administration picks. From Tesla and Space X Chief Elon Musk, former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, Fox News Commentator Pete Hegseth, Environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to US representative Matt Gaetz, all big names have made it to Trump's cabinet. But did you know, that most of these people face varying degrees of sexual misconduct allegations?
Elon Musk
Earlier in June, eight former employees filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk for sexual harassment and retaliation in California state court.
“Musk knowingly and purposefully created an unwelcome hostile work environment based upon his conduct of interjecting into the workplace vile sexual photographs, memes, and commentary that demeaned women and/or the LGBTQ+ community,” the eight former employees said in their filing.
Following this, several incidents of alleged sexual abuse came to the forefront.
SpaceX CEO is accused of having sexual relationships with two of his employees, including an intern. He had also exposed himself to a flight attendant, on a private jet, in 2016, reported the Business Insider.
The flight attendant, a woman, alleged that Musk exposed himself to her. He rubbed her thigh and offered to buy her a horse if she would “do more” during an in-flight massage, Business Insider quoted the friend of the flight attendant as saying.
However, in 2022, Musk took to X (formerly Twitter) and denied all allegations.
“The attacks against me should be viewed through a political lens – this is their standard (despicable) playbook – but nothing will deter me from fighting for a good future and your right to free speech,” he wrote.
The attacks against me should be viewed through a political lens – this is their standard (despicable) playbook – but nothing will deter me from fighting for a good future and your right to free speech
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 20, 2022READ: Sex Abuse, Drug Use: 5 Shocking Allegations Against Elon Musk In New Report
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
In July 2024, a Vanity Fair piece claimed RFK Junior, Trump's pick for the Health Department, sexually assaulted Eliza Cooney, then 23, a former babysitter for the family. Reportedly Cooney was in the kitchen, rifling through the pantry for lunch, when Kennedy came up behind her, blocked her inside the room, and began groping her, putting his hands on her hips and sliding them up along her rib cage and breasts. “My back was to the door of the pantry, and he came up behind me,” she says, describing the alleged sexual assault. “I was frozen. Shocked.”
RFK Jr. has somewhere accepted the claims. During his appearance on the podcast Breaking Point, he said, “The [Vanity Fair] article is a lot of garbage. Listen, I have said this from the beginning. I am not a church boy. I am not running like that.”
Later, he claimed to have texted Cooney to express regret for his actions.
Kennedy admitted to podcast host Saagar Enjeti that he “had a very, very rambunctious youth”.
Matt Gaetz
Matt Gaetz, Trump's pick for attorney general, was once embroiled in a sex-trafficking investigation by the Justice Department that he has been chosen to lead.
In 2021, Gaetz was investigated for alleged sexual trafficking of a minor, breaking federal sex trafficking laws, and being involved in a scheme to recruit and pay women for sex.
The probe centered on Gaetz and fellow Floridian Joel Greenberg, a former tax collector in Seminole County who was indicted in 2020 on a federal child sex trafficking charge. According to the New York Times, people close to the investigation said they believe Greenberg met women through websites and introduced them to Gaetz, who had sex with them.
Gaetz denied any role in the case, alleging a political conspiracy by his rivals, particularly former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The investigation ended on November 13, when Gaetz resigned from Congress after Trump's nomination for the attorney general role in the next administration.
Pete Hegseth
Donald Trump's defense secretary nominee and Fox News host Pete Hegseth was investigated for sexual assault in California in 2017.
Allegedly, Hegseth raped the then-30-year-old conservative group staffer in his room after drinking at a hotel bar. The accuser, whose identity has not been made public, filed a complaint with the police alleging she was sexually assaulted days after the Oct. 7, 2017, encounter in Monterey, California, but the local district attorney did not bring charges.
Hegseth paid an undisclosed sum to the woman several years later as part of a nondisclosure agreement, though he maintained that their encounter was consensual, according to a statement from his lawyer Saturday and other documents obtained by The Washington Post.
These allegations appear to be insignificant in Trump 2.0. It isn't surprising as Trump too faces such accusations. Stacey Williams, a former model, has accused Trump of groping her at his New York office in 1992, reported The Guardian newspaper earlier in October. Trump and Williams were introduced to each other by sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein.
Williams, now 56, says Trump put his hands "all over" her breasts, waist, and buttocks, causing her to freeze on the spot, and she noticed that the two men appeared to be smiling at each other.
Trump has various other sexual assault cases against him.
READ: Inside Trump's Cabinet: Appointments And Front-Runners
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