Donald Trump Proudly Defends Using The Word 'Rape' (UPDATE)

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly characterized comments made by Donald Trump on Thursday around the word “rape.” Trump used the word in regard to companies.

Donald Trump, who was found liable for sexual abuse last year in court, boasted about using the word “rape” during a speech in Detroit on Thursday.

Referring to what he called “companies outside of our world,” Trump said the U.S. allows the “raid and rape” of the country.

“We allowed them to come in and raid and rape our country,” Trump said.

Trump then defended his word choice.

“Oh, he used the word ‘rape,’” Trump said, imitating those who might be offended by him using the term. “That’s right, I used the word ‘rape.’ They raped our country.”

Although Trump didn’t name the companies he was referring to specifically, he  indicated that he meant overseas businesses exporting goods to the U.S.

During a 2016 rally, Trump had said the U.S. “can’t continue to allow China to rape our country , and that’s what they’re doing.”

In other past remarks, Trump has also referred to migrants as rapists . Amid the launch of his 2016 campaign for the presidency, Trump declared that immigrants from Mexico were “bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

Trump has repeatedly promoted the rapist lie despite the fact that at least 26 women have publicly accused him of sexually abusing them. Last year, a jury found him liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in a department store dressing room in the 1990s and ordered him to pay her $5 million in damages.

Though the jury did not find him liable on rape charges, the judge overseeing the case said it was still accurate to refer to Trump as a rapist.

“Based on all of the evidence at trial and the jury’s verdict as a whole, the jury’s finding that Mr. Trump ‘sexually abused’ Ms. Carroll implicitly determined that he forcibly penetrated her digitally ― in other words, that Mr. Trump did in fact ‘rape’ Ms. Carroll as that term commonly is used and understood in contacts outside of the New York Penal Law,” Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote when dismissing Trump’s demands for a new trial.

Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website .