For all the Trump apologists who think it's OK to dismiss sexual abuse of women as "locker room talk," author Kelly Oxford and thousands of her followers on Twitter are making clear that such actions involve real victims and lasting harm. Despite what GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump says, these are not "just words."

Oxford wrote on Twitter a week ago: "Women: tweet me your first assaults." She started off by describing her own encounter, at age 12 with an old man on a city bus who grabbed her crotch and smiled.

The motive for her tweet was the 2005 recording of Trump talking about different ways a "star" like him can sexually abuse women. Trump referred to an act of abuse exactly like the one Oxford experienced. In recent days, other women have come forward saying they were groped by Trump himself.

We won't quote the words Trump used because this remains a family newspaper. That's part of the point here. Why would Republicans who assert the mantle of family values and morality stand in defense of a man whose language is so filthy he can't be quoted?

Trump also bragged to radio host Howard Stern in 2005 that he used to barge in on beauty contestants as they stood naked in their dressing rooms, simply so he could ogle them. Rolling Stone quoted three Miss USA and Teen USA contestants saying that he entered as young women were naked and half-naked.

Trump has couched his actions as a kind of perk that comes with authority and stardom, as if power gives him special rights. This is the individual Republican loyalists propose to make the most powerful man in the world — knowing that this is how he abuses authority.

Oxford said she expected a trickle of responses from her tweet. On Wednesday, she reported that more than 30 million people had read or responded.

Responses included thousands of shocking stories from women who had been groped or raped by men who treated such abuse with shoulder-shrugging passivity. Many victims felt they had no choice but to bury their emotions and soldier on, mistakenly believing they were alone.

By virtue of the office, the president serves as a national role model and sets the tone of the public discussion. When someone like Donald Trump waves off talk of sexual assault as "just words," he diminishes the importance of this issue. He minimizes the real terror and humiliation of sexual assault.

Trump and his supporters point to former President Bill Clinton's sexual escapades, as if to say that one wrong makes Trump's transgressions right. His utter lack of remorse suggests Trump still believes that power gives him a license to do as he pleases. And that makes him very dangerous.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH