Donald Trump Seems to Have Signed an Anti-Porn Pledge 

By Joanna Rothkopf  |  August 1, 2016 | 1:50pm
Politics

On Monday, advocacy group Enough Is Enough announced via press release that Donald Trump, serial woman-cherisher, had signed an anti-porn pledge, vowing to “prevent the sexual exploitation of children online,” and to “make the internet safer for all.” That really is something.

“Mr. Trump’s leadership and commitment to uphold the rule of law is demonstrated by his signing of the Children’s Internet Safety Presidential Pledge,” said CEO and President of the organization Donna Rice Hughes in a statement. “Governments can’t parent and parents can’t enforce the law. Parents alone cannot prevent internet crimes against their children.”

“Government must also do its part and enforce all the laws on the books, not just some of them! Over the last two decades America’s children have paid an unnecessarily steep price for the lax enforcement of federal obscenity laws. Obscenity is not protected under the First Amendment, and the failure to enforce the law is harming children across the nation and around the world.”

The statement also cites Utah legislature deeming pornography a “public health crisis” that leads to the “hyper-sexualization of teens.” In an interview, Hughes reportedly said that an explosion of internet porn “rewired teen brains.”

While the Trump campaign has not responded to a request for comment regarding the press release’s veracity, Enough Is Enough’s website features a page dedicated to the presidential pledge, and allows visitors to see Trump’s signed copy of the pledge. The press release noted that the Clinton campaign declined to sign the pledge because of a policy against signing pledges, and that Gary Johnson’s campaign had failed to respond.

Trump likely signed the pledge (if he even knew what he was signing) because of the Republican party’s new platform position on pornography, which also declares it to be a “public health crisis.”

“The internet must not become a safe haven for predators,” the platform reads. “Pornography, with its harmful effects, especially on children, has become a public health crisis that is destroying the life of millions.”

Of all hardline positions to take on anything, being anti-porn is a bit of an odd fit for Trump, who has spoken widely and openly about his love of sex and naked women.

After the New York Post published nude photographs of his wife Melania Trump published in a 1996 issue of Max Magazine, the presidential candidate said, “Melania was one of the most successful models, and she did many photo shoots, including for covers and major magazines. This was a picture taken for a European magazine prior to my knowing Melania. In Europe, pictures like this are very fashionable and common.”

These comments were published in an article dated August 1. The pledge was supposedly signed on July 16.

In a 2003 interview with Howard Stern, he objectified an intern (“By the way, your intern is incredible. Julie. It’s her first day. Get her out here, she’s amazing… Look at the face,” he said), discussed J. Lo’s butt (“I really like J. Lo but that ass is… I mean…”), and said that he had watched Paris Hilton’s sex tape even though he had known her since she was 12 and is close with her family.

From the Daily Beast:

“Now, somebody who a lot of people don’t give credit to but is in actuality very beautiful is Paris Hilton,” Trump told Stern. “I’ve known Paris Hilton from the time she’s 12, her parents are friends of mine, and the first time I saw her she walked into the room and I said, ‘Who the hell is that?’ At 12, I wasn’t interested… but she was beautiful.”

In that same interview, he said his daughter Ivanka had “the best body… She’s a great beauty.”

Trump has a storied history of speaking offensively about women, and has called them pieces of ass, and said, “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”

When I asked Kevin McVicker, a spokesperson for the Enough is Enough campaign, whether or not it cared to comment on Trump’s quotes about Melania and history of speaking offensively about women, he said “I don’t know,” and directed me to a Trump campaign spokesperson.

The Trump campaign has not yet responded to that request for comment.

Update (2:00 p.m.): McVicker later clarified via email that he thought I was asking whether the Trump campaign had a comment, not EIE. He provided the following comment from Hughes (with the following formatting):

Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, children, women and men.
This Pledge is about
Preventing Sexual exploitation of children and calling on each candidate,.
if elected President to make a pledge to defend the innocence and dignity of America’s children by enforcing the existing federal laws and advancing public policies designed to 1) prevent the sexual exploitation of children online and 2) to make the Internet safer for all. EIE is a non-partisan, non-profit organization and does not endorse or oppose candidates for office.
The Pledge’s goals include a commitment to appoint an Attorney General, who will make the vigorous prosecution of the federalobscenity, child pornography, sexual predation, child trafficking laws and the Children’s Internet Protection Act a top priority. The Pledge also includes provisions for the necessary resources and tools to prosecute such crimes and calls for the establishment of public-private partnerships to step up voluntary efforts to reduce and prevent Internet crimes against children. Finally, the Pledge asks for consideration to appoint a Presidential Commission to examine the harmful public health impact of Internet pornography and the prevention of the sexual exploitation of children in the digital age.

 
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