--- title: Man Accused of Groping Woman on Flight: Trump 'Says It's OK' description: A man who was accused of groping a woman on a Southwest flight reportedly cited President Donald Trump in defense of his alleged actions. canonical: https://time.com/5431823/man-gropes-woman-on-flight/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-23T15:07:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T16:53:56.000Z og:title: Man Accused of Groping Woman on Flight: Trump 'Says It's OK' og:description: The 49-year-old passenger was arrested for abusive sexual contact og:url: https://time.com/5431823/man-gropes-woman-on-flight/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48e32c453454538a/69893d367cdbac6499d5e3ce/airplane-groping.jpg?branch=production&width=509&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 509 og:image:height: 286 og:image:alt: Southwest-Flight-Groping og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man Accused of Groping Woman on Flight: Trump 'Says It's OK' twitter:description: The 49-year-old passenger was arrested for abusive sexual contact twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48e32c453454538a/69893d367cdbac6499d5e3ce/airplane-groping.jpg?branch=production&width=509&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Man Accused of Groping Woman on Plane: Trump 'Says It's OK to Grab Women by Their Private Parts' > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=dc0e6287-f027-4489-b90e-cdd478d78fcb&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: 1 Year Later: President Donald Trump's Most Controversial Remarks [Watch (HLS stream): 1 Year Later: President Donald Trump's Most Controversial Remarks](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KXGhnVO8.m3u8) (3:29)  _Published 2017-11-08. 1 Year Later: President Donald Trump's Most Controversial Remarks_  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Updated: Dec 12, 2023 4:53 PM UTCPublished: Oct 23, 2018 3:07 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Updated: Dec 12, 2023 4:53 PM UTCPublished: Oct 23, 2018 3:07 PM UTC A man who was accused of [groping a woman](http://time.com/5320294/aj-baker-sexual-misconduct-allegations/) on a [Southwest flight](http://time.com/money/5379680/southwest-airlines-credit-card-companion-pass/) from Houston to New Mexico on Sunday reportedly cited [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/5047223/donald-trump-access-hollywood-tape-billy-bush/) in defense of his alleged actions. According to an [affidavit](https://www.scribd.com/document/391378211/Affidavit-on-Bruce-Alexander), when 49-year-old Bruce Michael Alexander was arrested in Albuquerque on an abusive sexual contact charge, he told authorities that ‘the president of the United States says it’s OK to grab women by their private parts.” The woman, who wasn’t identified, claims that Alexander twice reached forward and touched her breast while sitting behind her on the flight. She said that when she felt him touch her a second time “she rose from her seat, turned around and told the passenger behind her that she didn’t know why he thought it was OK and he needed to stop.” The woman then asked a crew member to move to a different section of the plane. She said she had not been drinking alcohol or taking any sleep aids. Alexander later told authorities that he didn’t recall touching the woman and was asleep for most of the flight. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. “On Sunday, airline supervisors and local law enforcement officers met flight 5421 upon its arrival in Albuquerque from Houston after allegations of inappropriate behavior by a passenger inflight. Our reports indicate that during the flight, the crew reseated at least one customer onboard,” Southwest told TIME. “We take protection of our customers very seriously, and safety is at the forefront of everything we do at Southwest.” ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Do you want to include the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional [ CROSSTALK ] Well, I would. I tell you what. Do you want to set up the meeting? Do you want to set up the meeting? No, no, no. I'm just a reporter. Are they friends of yours? No, set up the meeting. I know some of them. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] The past 17 years Obamacare has wreaked havoc on the lives of innocent hard- working Americans. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] Best not make anymore threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. I think there's blame on both sides, and I have no doubt about it. And you had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were Very fine people on both sides. The only people giving a platform to these hate groups is the media itself and the fake news. Sheriff Joe, he's done a great job for the people of Arizona. He is very strong on borders. [ MUSIC ] I thought he was treated unbelievably unfairly. Wouldn't you love to see one these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say get that son of a [ BLEEP ] off the field right now. Out. He's fired. He's fired. If you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died. Now what is your death count as of this moment? 17. 16 certified. Sixteen people certified. 16 people versus in the thousands. Obamacare's finished, it's dead, it's gone. It's no longer, you shouldn't even mention it. Mention it, it's gone. There is no such thing as Obamacare anymore. If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn't make calls, a lot of them didn't make calls. I like to call when it's appropriate, when I think I am able to do it. Earlier you said that President Obama never called the families of fallen soldiers, how can you make that claim? I don't know if he did did, no, no, no. Between 1 and 10, how would you grade the White House response so far to [ UNKNOWN ] I'd say it was a 10. This is a mental health problem at the highest level. This isn't a guns situation, I mean we could go into it, but it's a little bit soon to go into it, but Fortunately somebody else had a gun that was shooting in the opposite direction. Otherwise it wouldn't have been as bad as it was, it would have been much worse. 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