The irony of the date, 1st April, April Fool's Day was not lost on social media as hordes of Trump followers took to the internet to voice their views on the news that Trump has declared that April is to be 'National Sexual Awareness and Prevention Month'.
Trump history
This announcement is from the same president who has outstanding accusations of sexual assault on 12 women over the past year and called his accusers 'liars', 'too unattractive for him' and threatening to sue them after his victory.
A tape of Trump released in October 2016 from 2005 boasted of his sexual attentions to women and how he as a 'star' could 'grab them by the p***y' and 'do anything'.
He is currently being sued by one of his former contestants from The Apprentice, Summer Zervos, for using his position to falsely denigrate her and other women who accused him of unwanted sexual attention.
Twitter reaction
The reaction on Twitter was instantaneous with most users suggesting that this was perhaps some sort of grotesque April Fool joke rather than an actual proclamation and realizing the huge irony. One user declared that " Irony just stabbed itself in the heart with a pair of dull scissors" and another that April should also be " Irony Remembrance Month after its' death today."
Trump's proclamation
The proclamation which can be read in full at The White House website www.whitehouse.gov states that " Women, children and men have inherent dignity that should never be violated." It goes on to say that the Trump administration will do all it can to "protect women, children and men from sexual violence".
The president says that he has instructed the Attorney General to create a task force to develop strategies to reduce crime. The views and actions proposed in the proclamation are indeed laudable but there still remains the specter looming over the Commander-in-Chief that he himself is being accused of such unwanted sexual advances and indeed is on record voicing his opinions on the same.
National month
The idea of a 'national month' was introduced by Congress during the George W. Bush tenure in 2003 and whilst it has been celebrated every year since by Bush and Obama and unsurprisingly it has never received the media attention that this one has.
