“It’s a pretty big problem, given that we have, you know, we have a sexual assault problem in our military,” Republican senator Kevin Cramer said of Pete Hegseth, Trump’s choice for defence secretary.

And it’s not just men with sordid incidents. Linda McMahon, Trump’s selection for education secretary, has been accused in a lawsuit, along with her husband, Vince McMahon, of allowing a man in their company, World Wrestling Entertainment, to groom and sexually abuse children in the 1980s and ’90s. (In a separate lawsuit obtained by The Athletic, Vince McMahon was accused by a woman of sex trafficking, physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault and negligence.)

In the old days, even a small black mark – smoking pot or not paying taxes for your nanny – could sink you instantly. And, for larger offences, the fact that you weren’t criminally charged wouldn’t save you.

As Carl Hulse wrote in The New York Times: “What once passed as disqualifying for a presidential nominee seems downright benign in comparison to allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use by his attorney general pick detailed in a secret congressional report, a sexual assault accusation followed by a paid settlement for his choice to head the Pentagon and an acknowledged former heroin addiction by the would-be health secretary.”

As Republican senator John Cornyn noted in a massive understatement, “standards are apparently evolving”.

It was risible to see supporters of the three men jockeying over which act was the least illegal and morally reprehensible, making arguments akin to: “Well, at least Pete didn’t sleep with a minor.” “Well, at least the nanny Bobby groped wasn’t a minor.”

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During #MeToo, we moved away from the “he said/she said” dynamic to a “she said” one. That probably needed some course correction because it was pushing men into Trump’s manosphere. It never should have been simply: Believe all women. It should have been: Don’t disbelieve women automatically; investigate.

Now we’re back using “he said/she said” to dismiss a woman who filed a police complaint, full of lurid detail, against Hegseth. Bill Hagerty, a Republican senator from Tennessee, said the accusations were a “disgrace,” nothing but “he said/she said.”

In putting forward three men accused of sexual misconduct, Trump is conveying that men like himself are the perpetual victims of lies, so it should not be disqualifying.

He is turning what he told Billy Bush on the Access Hollywood tape into a presidential mantra: “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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