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President Donald Trump said Friday that he feels “badly” for the seven men accused of gang-raping a young woman at Cornell University, as well as the Ivy League school, the local DA and university police after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed state Attorney General Letitia James to investigate them all over the allegations and their handling.

James successfully prosecuted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records, a felony, in a case which ended months before Trump was re-elected in 2024. The president spoke to reporters before departing the White House for Mobile, Alabama and was asked by Fox News reporter Peter Doocy about the upstate New York case being handed to his nemesis.

"Well, Letitia James is a corrupt person. She's totally corrupt and I can't imagine it. I feel badly for whoever she's looking at because they won't get a fair shake,” said Trump.

The alleged rape case shocked Americans after it was publicly revealed in a new lawsuit filed by Jane Doe, the unnamed accuser, against the university over its handling of her 2024 gang rape complaint involving seven members of a fraternity, who, according to her suit and since-revealed text exchanges, discussed the incident in a larger group chat with other fraternity members. The 101-page civil complaint was filed Sept. 14 and alleges the assault occurred in October 2024 at Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity house in Ithaca, New York.

The comments Friday afternoon were Trump’s second remarks about the Cornell situation, and his second without offering any empathy for the unnamed victim. The lawsuit alleges that she suffered shocking sexual abuse over the course of several hours at the fraternity house after what was initially a consensual encounter with two of the frat members while she was drunk.

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[-] GreenBean@lemmy.today 4 points 9 hours ago

He said he feels "badly"? badLY? Fat Chance .

[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 points 9 hours ago

What? It's an adverb that's completely proper.

[-] Eddbopkins@lemmy.world 9 points 19 hours ago

The sadness and depression I have over America becoming a a cesspool of evil and dishonor is unimaginable. A sweeping change from this current administration is the only cure.

[-] Soup@lemmy.world 4 points 16 hours ago

An overt cesspool of evil and dishonour. They were barely hiding it before, but at least there was an attempt, however weak.

[-] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 16 points 23 hours ago

In a follow up question trump asked, "Was she good looking? How old was she?".

[-] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 14 points 23 hours ago

The fact that these pathetic assholes raped a woman as opposed to a child actually puts them ahead of the President of the United States.

Your country is FUCKED.

[-] D_C@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 day ago

Rapist of women and kids feels bad for other rapists.

Notice how the fat orange child rapist didn't ask about the person who was raped!! Now, I wonder why that is...??

[-] Pratai@piefed.ca 29 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It is very telling that the very few times he ever openly feels bad for other people are rapists. He has next to no empathy, but what empathy he does have, is reserved for rapisst like himself. It’s because he can relate to them.

[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 5 points 16 hours ago

Fake news.

He felt people were unfair to the Klan and Nazis that showed up to Charlottesville since most of the people (on that side) were very good people.

[-] bedwyr@piefed.ca 6 points 23 hours ago

It's cold self interest, he's cold blooded, has not empathy. His nemesis got appointed special prosecutor, that's why he's talking shit. He's the most transparent asshole in the world.

[-] mHtt@lemmy.ca 128 points 1 day ago

ive never been more certain that the USA has jumped the shark than here in 2026 listening to President Donald Trump defend rape.

[-] EatMyPixelDust@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 16 hours ago

What do you expect? He's also a rapist.

[-] Nora@lemmy.dbzer0.com 93 points 1 day ago

I mean he defended it way back in 2015~ this is the least surprising thing he's done.

[-] tea_n_typewriters@lemmy.world 48 points 1 day ago

Defending Rapists is basically a free spot on the bingo card.

[-] Zephorah@discuss.online 44 points 1 day ago

MAGA is a man’s movement. (Just going to get this out of the way, because internet: not all).

Embedded in the loyal following are the men flailing in response to women’s lib. Remember, the real, legit push for the legal and social equality of women is only 50yrs old. We’ve been beholden to men, financially or otherwise, for millennia. Consider that. Not because it’s natural, but due to male identity, and the fact that we have what they want (nurture, our bodies, and legacy), what they’d like to continue to see molded around that identity, strangulating another human beings life and future to get it.

Fathers teach sons. By words or example. When boys, teens, and then young men grow up with “back in my day women weren’t like this”, “women aren’t women any more”, “the world treats us like shit now, in favor of women”, instead of “it’s about time” or “cool”, this can stick within the building of that male identity.

And we weren’t like this back in dads or grandpas day, true, because we didn’t have choices. Couldnt get mortgages. Take out a credit card. Have a bank account our husband couldnt rob. Have medical privacy. Never mind work place problems. That crap Nancy Wheeler dealt with in ST, real.

Rape culture travels with that mess, because that old culture came with entitlement to our lives, our bodies, and the legacy our bodies can produce. And our president is a convicted rapist. Enough good ol boys within that culture, somehow, kept his sentencing delayed until the election.

Enter the manosphere, validating all of the above, while adding blame to women for not embracing the old ways prior to the beginning of women’s lib in the 1970s.

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

We've jumped a train of sharks before and probably have a lot more to go.

It's sharks all the way down.

Remember, 10 years ago, he was on tape, bragging about sexual assault and because of who he is, he gets away with it.

And what happened? People latched onto the choice of the word pussy and made it all about that, and how it's "locker room talk", etc. Which is just red herring, of course, but it worked.

[-] protist@retrofed.com 7 points 1 day ago

I have to believe we can still come back from this. I hope the election next month at least starts to set us on a better path

[-] 13igtyme@startrek.website 1 points 1 day ago

It's doubtful mid terms will do much.

More likely this will only be completely fixed with blood.

[-] Maeve@kbin.earth 9 points 1 day ago

I feel like we jumped the shark with Vietnam, or Kaiser Insurance businessmen having a talk with Nixon about HMO is "good" when he was considering universal healthcare.

[-] FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago

I mean, this isn’t a new position for him.

[-] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 54 points 1 day ago

Ya know, Kavanaugh, one of our SCOTUS, was in line to rape a fellow student under similar circumstances. Just a reminder.

[-] aramis87@fedia.io 32 points 1 day ago

And Clarence Thomas sexually harassed Anita Hill.

[-] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 44 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Central park five. Gee I wonder what the difference might be

[-] velma@sh.itjust.works 36 points 1 day ago

Central park five

I know you know the differences, but to spell it out it's because the Central Park 5 are innocent and also men of color.

[-] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 31 points 1 day ago

And this is why its relevant:

https://archive.org/details/6131533-trumpdeathpenaltyad05011989

Where Trump took out full page ads in newspapers advocating for bringing back the death penalty specifically for the (now) Exonerated Five. Trump spent his own money to defame these men.

One of these things is not like the other

[-] davidagain@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

after what was initially a consensual encounter with two of the frat members while she was drunk

That doesn't sound very consensual to me, but then I'm not a boomer or "men's rights" activist.

He defends rape because he’s a rapist.

[-] Snapz@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

"We asked a rapist what he thought about these rapes and what he said, will rape you."

[-] artyom@piefed.social 10 points 1 day ago

He said of one of the largest child sex traffickers in history "I wish her well", so no one should be surprised.

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

I'm sure he does.

Asshole should be in prison.

[-] santa@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 day ago

I wasn’t aware he could feel emotions for others.

[-] GraniteM@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago

In that way, he's being honest; he "feels badly," because the mechanism by which he feels feelings is fucked up, so he is bad at feeling emotions.

[-] velma@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 day ago

I guess he can empathize with rapists.

Dude fucking loves himself some Nazis too

[-] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago

Very fine people

[-] im_fine_sandy@nord.pub 12 points 1 day ago

I'm not surprised in the slightest. This is absolutely on brand for Trump. Anyone who thinks he'd react any other way is an idiot.

[-] friend_of_satan@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago
[-] bender223@lemmy.today 10 points 1 day ago

birds of a feather

[-] Zephorah@discuss.online 8 points 1 day ago

Why do reporters continue to slenderize this asshole in photos?

[-] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago

When is he gonna give them jobs?

[-] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Blow or hand? Or do you need to be called bubba for that to happen?

[-] Maeve@kbin.earth 6 points 1 day ago

OTOH, he threatened ivy league unis over Palestinian genocide protests, so it balance, right? Right?! 🥴

[-] ruuster13@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago

Hochul playing... I'll call it 3D Chess setting up Trump to [attempt to] pardon the most obvious rapists [so far].

[-] velma@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago

People are getting uneasy about the mob justice on this case already - that would be disastrous if Trump was able to pardon these rapists.

[-] OwOarchist@pawb.social 11 points 1 day ago

Unless committed inside a place that's in exclusively federal jurisdiction, rape is a state-level crime and a federal pardon would mean nothing. Even with full federal pardons, they can still be arrested, tried, and imprisoned under state law.

[-] protist@retrofed.com 2 points 1 day ago

The state government can only bring state charges, which Trump has no ability to pardon

[-] velma@sh.itjust.works 1 points 17 hours ago

That’s why I said “if Trump was able to” and not “when Trump pardons them”.

[-] wirebeads@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago

Birds of a feather…

[-] BigMacHole@thelemmy.club 3 points 1 day ago

Trump is NOT a Rapist but AFTER being found GUILTY of Rape he said he Feels SORRY for Other Rapists!

[-] kingkong@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

the epstein class strikes again

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this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2026
366 points (98.9% liked)

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