On Thursday, former Congressman Matt Gaetz announced his withdrawal from consideration by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as attorney general in his administration. The day before, after a two-hour closed-door meeting, the House Ethics Committee announced that it would did not at that time release a report on Gaetzthe culmination of an investigation into allegations that Gaetz attended sex parties, took illegal drugs and had sex with a minor. Gaetz reportedly announced his withdrawal on X after he was asked to comment on testimony regarding an alleged second and previously unreported sexual encounter with the minor, according to CNN. (Gaetz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, and the DOJ closed its investigation into him without filing charges.)

Gaetz was just one of many controversial government elections we’ve seen from Trump as he prepares to re-enter the White House, with both Democrats and Republicans expressing surprise and concern. In fact, Gaetz’s sudden decision to remove himself from consideration a day after he wooed senators was less surprising, to some, than the election itself. “Holy s—! I didn’t see that coming,” Sen. John Fetterman reportedly said sarcastically after learning of Gaetz’s withdrawal. Some GOP senators are reportedly “relieved” by the news.

Still, Gaetz’s withdrawal and the uncertain future of the ethics report do not trace the path the president-elect has already set for his future cabinet — one that includes not only the unqualified but also men accused of sexual assault. There’s no “relief” in sight when the charges against Gaetz didn’t automatically disqualify him for Day One consideration. There will be no relief as a result of his recantation, potentially allowing the former congressman to evade responsibility and avoid further scrutiny either.

Instead, lawmakers will continue to scratch their heads over Trump’s choice of former WWE executive and former Small Business Administration administrator Linda McMahon for Education Secretary or TV host and surgeon Mehmet Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. By any logical, reality-based standard, these choices would unanimously be seen as laughable, inappropriate, and even repugnant — but Trump has made it clear that normal standards no longer apply.

When Trump named Gaetz to head the Justice Department, attention immediately turned to the sexual abuse allegations surrounding the embattled lawmaker, including claims he had sex with a minor and where allegedly involved in sex trafficking alongside his former friend Joel Greenbergwho pleaded guilty to sex trafficking in 2021.

“Why is he so intent on picking the most controversial firefighter he can think of for every post?” Chuck Todd of NBC News wrote and argued that “politically, it just doesn’t make sense” for Trump to name a man is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee on allegations of sexual harassment. A plethora of GOP senators were reportedly ‘stunned and not in a good way’ of the Gaetz election. Rope. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, responded to the news by asking a reporter: “Are you me?”

But to be surprised by any of this feels painfully naive. The overarching troubling theme is that men accused of sexual assault are not a bug, but an element of the inner circle Trump is assembling for his administration.

2016, when the country first decided that a man accused of sexual assault or harassment by more than two dozen women was fit for the highest office in the land, I was admittedly shocked.

I watched in horror as acquaintances and family members celebrated Trump’s ascension when, just weeks before, he was heard — on tape — bragging about grabbing women by their genitals without their consent. I tried and failed to follow the mental gymnastics used by some of the very people who at one point offered their heartfelt condolences, well wishes and righteous indignation after I was sexually assaulted by a former co-worker, only to praise their god when Trump secured an Electoral College victory.

I navigated PTSD triggers the first time President Trump approved Roy Moore, a man accused of having relations with underage girls (Moore denied the allegations)and defended his former White House staff secretary Rob Porter after he was charged with several counts of domestic violence (Porter denied the allegations but resigned from his post). I cried like now-justice Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court — His accuser Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony dismissed as the rape package I endured that still, to this day, sits on a shelf somewhere in Oregon, gathering dust and indifference.

Now, as the country prepares for Trump 2.0 despite his two impeachment hearings, 34 criminal convictions and a Jury finding him responsible for sexual assaultthat shock has been hollowed out. And it has been replaced by a cold disassociation that takes over body and mind as so many promises that good will overcome evil and that justice will prevail crumble before your eyes.

It is a feeling many, including 1 in 6 women and 1 in 10 men who will be victims of sexual assault sometime in life, know too well. It’s what bombards the senses when you live in a country there fewer than 7% of rape cases will end in a conviction. It’s the familiar gut that precedes a local prosecutor who says there isn’t enough evidence to go to trial; they are sorry, but there is nothing they can do; this is what happens when it’s “he says, she says.”

That is also why more than 200 survivors of sexual assault and gender-based violence signed a full-page ad in The New York Times urging — begging — voters not to reinstate Trump to the Oval Office. While others may have forgotten the tumult that defined his first presidency, those of us who called hotlines for sexual abuse at a record rate during confirmation hearings and listened to him claims his accusers were too ugly to rape have not.

We know all too well how the country has historically appeased toxic, misogynistic men in positions of power, overlooking or even embracing their sexist rhetoric as simply “men being men” or, later, engaging in “locker room talk.” We can still remember a Republican legislators call our bodies “hosts” and claims “legitimate rapes” do not result in a pregnancyonly for the same political party to pretend it “respects life” and upholds “family values”.

That’s why very few of us were shocked when Gaetz at one point was alleged showed sexual videos of women to his congressional colleagues on the floor of the house, or when he voted the only no to a 2017 anti-trafficking bill.

And that’s why we weren’t surprised when prosecutors dropped the investigation into whether Gaetz recruited women online for sex and paid with cash apps without bringing charges.

Even with Gaetz’s withdrawal, Trump’s Cabinet picks are shaping up to be quite simply a disaster — a collection of men accused of sexual assault, harassment or rape whose career paths seem untouched by the allegations.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in the 90s who worked in his homeresponded to the accusation by saying on the Breaking Points podcast that he was “not a church boy” and admitted that he has “so many skeletons in my closet.”

And then there’s former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, who was investigated in connection with sexual assault allegations a woman in 2017 and then paying to keep her quiet. No charges were brought and his lawyer denied the allegations.

In this context, the president-elect’s choice of Gaetz as attorney general, despite his withdrawal, feels like just a canary in the coal mine, warning those who need to be reminded of what is likely. to come.