Could watching porn soon make you a criminal?
Despite Trump having graced the pages of Playboy multiple times in the past, he now wants you to stop watching porn. Here is why.
Porn may soon be a crime in the United States.
Donald Trump has graced the pages of Playboy on several occasions. Former fashion model Melania was never averse to a nude photo shoot.
And high-profile Senator Ted Cruz has promoted hardcore content on his Twitter (now X) account.
Under new legislation before the US Senate, all of the above would be criminal offences.
The Republican Party has taken the demands of a Make America Great Again (MAGA) trailblazer and turned it into legislative action: The Interstate Obscenity Definition Act (IODA).
The new bill proposes that depiction of nudity or sexual activity that “lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value” be banned. And any content with “actual or simulated sexual acts with the objective intent to arouse, titillate or gratify the sexual desires of a person” would be outlawed.
Congress and Supreme Court interpretations of the US Constitution’s First Amendment currently define the difference between freedom of expression and illegal pornography as anything intended to “abuse, threaten, or harass”. Or involves anyone below the age of consent.
Illinois Republican Representative Mary Miller says the law would “equip law enforcement with the tools they need to target and remove obscene material from the internet, which is alarmingly destructive and far outside the bounds of protected speech under the Constitution.”
However, its advocates have yet to get the support of the 47th President of the United States.
And he’s been sending mixed messages.
Such legislation could strip the profits of some of the internet’s biggest companies. Even “free-speech absolutist” and Special Government Employee Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) would be subject to the strict legal bonds.
But Trump, convicted last year of paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels, has previously displayed warmth towards similar proposals.
During his first election campaign in 2016, he signed a pledge to adopt a firm stance against pornography. He also raised the idea of opening a Presidential Commission into the “harmful public health impact of internet pornography on youth, families and the American culture.”
Ultimately, he did neither.
But he’s got another chance to do so with his second term.
And now some of his most powerful MAGA supporters appear to be holding him to his word.
Strange bedfellows
President Trump has a complex relationship with pornography.
He appeared on a 1990 cover of Playboy Magazine with Playmate Brandi Brandt, who only barely covered her modesty under his tuxedo jacket.
In the mid-1990s, he allowed his wife-to-be, Melania, to conduct a nude photo shoot on his private jet.
In 2013, he opened a strip club at his Atlantic City casino.
And then there’s his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying records relating to hush money payments made to porn actress Stormy Daniels over a one-night-stand in 2006.
Likewise, Senator Cruz gained notoriety by “liking” (and therefore rebroadcasting) hardcore pornography on the 2017 anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. He had been instrumental in Texas laws forbidding possession of more than six “obscene devices” (sex toys) – despite there being no such limits on gun ownership.
But none of this has tarnished their reputations with the Christian Nationalist movement at the core of his MAGA movement. To them, Trump is the reincarnation of King Cyrus the Great – the imperfect heathen Achaemenid king who freed the Middle Eastern nations from Babylon (among them Israel), and in doing so, did god’s work for him.
Trump vowed to tackle porn in 2016.
During his election campaign, he signed a five-point pledge with the anti-porn crusaders Enough Is Enough to prevent the sexual exploitation of children, “aggressively enforce” obscenity laws, appoint an Attorney-General who would redefine those laws, and recognise internet-based pornography as “deforming the sexual development of younger viewers.”
He signed the document the day after the New York Post published a nude picture of his wife, Melania, on its front page.
“Bestiality and anal sex online, that’s the new normal,” Enough Is Enough president Donna Hughes said at the time. “This entire sex industry is tied together, so it’s like fighting the drug war … just completely ignoring the obscenity laws [but combating child porn] would be like saying, ‘We’ve got a war on drugs, but we’re only going to concentrate on meth and heroin.’ That’s not going to do a very good job.”
Gaining momentum
Concern at the growing prevalence – and accessibility – of pornography is a global concern.
Already, some 17 US states (mainly in the South) have moved to ban major online pornography sites.
Under current US law, a charge of obscenity can only be laid if a “reasonable person” would find it “patently offensive”.
The Christian conservative Heritage Foundation wants to redefine both.
“Look at America under the ruling and cultural elite today: Inflation is ravaging family budgets, drug overdose deaths continue to escalate, and children suffer the toxic normalisation of transgender-ism with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries,” it proclaimed during the 2024 US election campaign.
The Washington DC think-tank authored Project 2025: Mandate for Leadership – The Conservative Promise. This 920-page document forms the basis of many of Trump’s policies, ranging from tariffs, slashing government spending, ending anti-discrimination efforts and renewing bans against the LGBTQ+ community.
“It (pornography) has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women,” the Project 2025 document states. “Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime.”
And they’re not holding back.
“Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned,” the document demands. “Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.”
Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee is turning these words into law.
He has introduced the IODA bill to the Senate.
Under the new law, “a picture, image, graphic image file, film, videotape, or other visual depiction” that “appeals to the prurient interest in nudity, sex, or excretion” would be criminal.
And “offensive” would no longer be limited to material “abusing, threatening or harassing a person”.
Analysts say this definition is so broad that it would apply equally to James Cameron’s movie Titanic and the TV series Game of Thrones, as it would to the most depraved and violent of bootlegged productions.
Obscenity laid bare
“Obscenity isn’t protected by the First Amendment, but hazy and unenforceable legal definitions have allowed extreme pornography to saturate American society and reach countless children,” Lee states in a press release. “Our bill updates the legal definition of obscenity for the internet age so this content can be taken down and its peddlers prosecuted.”
Senator Lee is not averse to a controversial position.
The vocal MAGA proponent stands behind those who insist the January 6, 2021, insurrection attempt on Capitol Hill was staged by undercover federal agents.
He’s introduced legislation to withdraw the United States from the United Nations.
He wants the Trump administration to pull out of the NATO defence alliance.
And this is the third time he’s moved to ban pornography: His attempts in 2022 and 2024 fell flat.
But it’s yet to be seen how popular IODA will be with the rest of the MAGA movement.
“This is a policy so extreme that it risks turning a culture war into a self-inflicted political wound,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Kristin Brey writes.
“Banning all porn doesn’t just raise enormous First Amendment concerns – it invites backlash from libertarians, moderates, and yes, the online foot soldiers of the ‘anti-woke’ movement.”
Trump’s 2024 victory was widely attributed to his success in expanding his appeal beyond the over-65 white American population and into young male voters.
“These young men have been told, repeatedly, that their frustrations with feminism, social progress and a rapidly changing culture are valid – and that the right will fight for them,” Brey explains. “But this bill does the opposite. It tells them: You, too, are the problem.”
Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @jamieseidel.bsky.social
Reaction to Trump tariff threat says it all
There were justifiable fears about a global economic bloodbath after Donald Trump’s tariff moves overnight, but something strange has happened.
‘Distressing’: Rudd hits out at Trump chaos
Ambassador Kevin Rudd has hit out at the latest spray of Trump chaos that will hit Aussie students at an iconic American university.
MAGA’s latest stunt shocks entire world
A greasy new war is being waged in the US as pizzas are now the latest artillery in a wild MAGA ‘intimidation plot’.