Will the White House appear on the sex offender registry after Trump’s 2025 return?

Donald Trump, who defeated Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential elections earlier this month, is set to return to the White House in January 2025 after his inauguration on January 20.  

As the 78-year-old prepares to resume office, rumors have surfaced on social media claiming the White House has been listed on the sex offender registry. An X post making this claim, uploaded on November 10, went viral, garnering over five million views and 26,000 reshares.  

However, Snopes has debunked this rumor as false. This is because only individuals with a criminal conviction are required to register as sex offenders. While Trump was found liable in the sexual abuse lawsuit filed by journalist E. Jean Carroll, it was a civil trial, not a criminal case.  

In November 2019, journalist, author, and columnist E. Jean Carroll filed a civil defamation lawsuit against Trump, alleging that he had raped her in the 1990s. Carroll also accused the then-president of defaming her by claiming she was lying for personal gain when she first spoke about the incident in June 2019.  

Two months later, Carroll's lawyers requested a DNA sample from Trump for analysis, but the process was delayed. Following a prolonged legal battle about whether Trump was protected by his presidential position, Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled in October 2020 that the 45th president could not claim immunity in this case.  

The case was escalated to the Second Circuit Court of Appeal. In March 2023, Judge Kaplan issued another ruling allowing additional evidence against Trump, including the infamous Access Hollywood tapes and testimonies from 26 women accusing him of abuse.  

In May 2023, a jury found Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll and ordered him to pay $5 million in compensation. This included $2 million for the s*e abuse, $20,000 in punitive damages, $1 million for defamation in 2021, $1.7 million for damage to Carroll’s reputation, and $280,000 in additional punitive damages.