Trump is now a legally defined sexual predator – will it affect his 2024 bid?

Verdict was dire for the Republican frontrunner, but more shocking than that was how unshockable the US has become

Former US president Donald Trump on the 15th hole at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg, Co. Clare, during his visit to Ireland. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

A mystery of Donald Trump’s US presidency was the absence of a major sex scandal. The thrice-married billionaire who boasted on Access Hollywood that women let him “grab ’em by the pussy’” seemed to commit every abuse of power except the kind that nearly brought down Bill Clinton.

Trump’s effort to regain the White House, however, must confront a different reality: he is now a legally defined as a sexual predator.