Trump slammed for cracking a 'joke' about sexual harassment amid Cornell 7 case

Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault and violence against women which some readers may find distressing.

He's done it again: America's most continuously controversy-spitting president Donald Trump has made a booboo in front of the media.

Addressing a crowd at the White House this week, the 80-year-old spoke directly to a reporter he deemed 'beautiful', but his open assessment was terribly timed in light of the Cornell University rape story.

The Cornell situation has arose after a Jane Doe student alleged that she was drugged and sexually assaulted over a period of several hours while attending a Chi Pi frat party in October 2024.

She filed a lawsuit against the educational establishment, which is located in Ithaca, New York, and each of the fraternity members.

Oscar-nominated actress Florence Pugh has since publicly supported this 'unbelievably powerful' woman on social media, but it seems like Trump didn't get the memo.

In a clip, we hear the entrepreneur-turned-political-leader say: "And your sister is here too Rachel, I hear... there she [is]. Oh, I don't know who's more beautiful. You know, as a politician you're not allowed to talk about the beauty of a woman, because it's the immediate end of your political career. But you're both very beautiful, so..."

The social media reactions to his casualness, as you'd expect, were fierce, with one person raging: "A woman says she was gang raped by seven men. The investigation was just reopened. And Trump's contribution today is a sexual harassment joke. F**king vile."

Somebody outside of the US wrote: "This is your leader.... Your President.... A vile, disgusting, gross individual. Who cracks jokes at the expense of victims.... Give your heads a shake, Americans."

A third person tweeted: "Yeah us women don't like ugly rapists commenting on our looks. Imagine that," before another commented: "Pretty rich coming from the man who said you could 'grab 'em by the pussy' and faced zero political consequences."

The fallout continued and continued, with more people suggesting Trump's own political trajectory was never affected by his alleged questionable behaviour.

"If ONLY it was the end of his political career" and "He is a convicted Rapist and was elected twice. This s**t doesn't end anything. There is no accountability for these crimes," read two X posts.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for the Cornell 7 woman has revealed that just two of her supposed attackers were expelled from the university and that no arrests were made. Others got lesser punishments including short suspensions and the submission of essays.

Cornell issued a statement last month, insisting it 'takes sexual violence extremely seriously'.

"The Presidential Task Force on Campus Sexual Assault was launched shortly after this incident and issued a report in March 2026. Several of the recommendations have already been implemented, while others are in development with oversight by a university implementation committee," it read.

The university said its civil rights and student conduct office launched an investigation into the allegations and that the Xi chapter of the Chi Phi fraternity 'remains barred'.