Dem
47
GOP
53
When he was running for president the third time, Donald Trump certainly pretended to care about sex trafficking. There's even verbiage in the 2024 Republican Platform wherein the party and its candidate pledge to "end the child trafficking crisis by returning all trafficked children."
Obviously, party platforms contain a lot of fluff. On top of that, even if a promise was offered in earnest, the realities on the ground sometimes make it difficult or impossible to deliver. However, one would think that combating child sex trafficking would not fall victim to that dynamic. That particular crime is universally despised, by partisans on both sides of the aisle. And the past half-dozen presidential administrations have all invested serious resources in fighting back against child trafficking.
But not anymore, it would appear. A new report from The Guardian reveals that the administration has "aggressively rolled back efforts across the federal government to combat human trafficking." This particular crime is not getting much investigative attention, it's not getting much prosecutorial attention, and efforts are not even being properly documented.
There are two easily verifiable reasons for the rollback of sex trafficking efforts. The first is the work of Elon Musk and his DOGEys, which pared back the financial and human resources needed for this work. The second is that a lot of the people remaining, the ones who are supposed to be working on sex trafficking, have been reassigned to border control and deportations.
We suspect there is a third reason, albeit not one that would be easy to prove. Some of Donald Trump's closest associates, past and present, are accused (or convicted) sex traffickers (e.g., Matt Gaetz, Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell). It is within reason to think that anytime a sex trafficker is busted, it serves as a reminder of the President's own adjacency to that crime. Certainly, the more coverage of sex traffickers' crimes, the worse it will look when whatever sweetheart deal has been given to Maxwell is publicly announced.
The notion that the administration is not only uninterested in pursuing sex traffickers, but also doesn't even want people talking about the subject, is somewhat borne out by the fact that federal law requires the Department of Justice to submit a report on sex trafficking, domestic and international, by June 30 of each year. This year's report has not been submitted yet, and don't expect the GOP majority to hold Trump accountable for that. The Guardian tried to ask the White House about the subject, and the terse response observed that Joe Biden was guilty of "coddling and apologizing for criminals and sexual predators." Somehow, the White House spokesperson forgot to mention Hillary Clinton's e-mails.
As with any sort of complex criminal operation, it takes a great deal of time to develop effective countermeasures, and to be able to bring perpetrators to justice. Anytime the pressure on the bad guys is turned down, it can take years to undo the damage, and restore things to what they were. In other words, Trump is not just sacrificing trafficked children for the next 3 years, but very likely for the next 5 or 10 or 15 years.
But, at least his administration is keeping saucy late night comedians under control, so there is that. (Z)