How can anyone be surprised that Trump turns out to be a sexist sleazeball?

In 1991, Trump said what female reporters said didn’t matter as long as they’ve got a “young and beautiful piece of ass.”

In 1994, after his daughter Tiffany had been born, Trump made a joke about his infant girl inheriting her mother’s legs and pondered whether she would inherit Marla Maples’ breasts as well.

In 1996, he launched a fat-shaming campaign against Miss Universe winner Alicia Machada, calling her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping”. His sustained public harassment of Machada led her to develop an eating disorder.

In 2006, he said of his eldest daughter: “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”

As for infidelity, in his 1987 book The Art of the Deal Trump shamelessly bragged about his affairs with married women: “If I told the real stories of my experiences with women, often seemingly very happily married and important women, this book would be a guaranteed best-seller.”

His own extra-marital affairs have been widely publicised – he left his wife for his mistress in a divorcee scandal that played out across tabloid headlines.

So why are we surprised that a video has surfaced showing Trump discussing women in the crudest and most dehumanising terms? The “grab ‘em by the pussy” video is disgusting, but it is hardly shocking. Donald Trump has a long and and meticulously documented history of sexism, misogyny, and the objectification of women.

Something about the 2005 video seems to have struck a particular nerve with the American public. Maybe it’s the timing, with the video highlighting Trump’s hypocrisy just weeks after he threatened to bring up Bill Clinton’s infidelity to attack Hillary. Maybe it’s the aggressive language (“I moved on her like a bitch”) that sounds disturbingly like Trump is advocating and boasting about sexual assault. Maybe this was the final straw for conservatives who have long been horrified by Trump and who now have cast-iron proof that he is, to quote National Review senior editor Jonah Goldberg, “an insecure, morally ugly, man-child who thinks boasting about how he can get away with groping women ‘because you’re a star’ impresses people”.

Regardless, the public outcry this time has been fierce enough to prompt the impossible: a Trump apology.

Watch that video. Don’t read a transcript – watch it. Watch the dull-eyed, robotic way Trump reads the script that has clearly been handed to him. Note the monotonous tone of voice, the complete lack of conviction or energy, the struggle to stay focussed. Certain words and phrases – “regret”, “humbled”, “I was wrong” – sound like they are being recited by a Trump clone. It looks more than a hostage video than an apology.

Trump claims “anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am”. He is wrong. The video is a perfect reflection of a man who takes a perverse pride in his disrespect of women. Trump goes on to say that his time on the campaign trail has changed him, that he is no longer the man who treated women as objects in 2005. But here’s a quick reminder of just some of the things Trump has said since launching his bid for the White House.

Fourteen months ago, he defended calling women “fat pigs”, “dogs”, “slobs”, and “disgusting animals” in the first Republican debate. When he was challenged about sexism by female moderator Megyn Kelly, he called her a “bimbo”, and attacked her afterwards by suggesting she had been hard on him because she was menstruating.

He said of female Republican primary rival Carly Fiorina: “Look at that face? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?”

When Hillary Clinton took a bathroom break during the December 2015 Democratic primary debate, Trump called it “too disgusting”, and said she got “schlonged” by Barack Obama in 2008. Earlier that year, he had tweeted that Hillary “couldn’t satisfy” America because she couldn’t satisfy her husband – both blaming her for Bill Clinton’s infidelity and turning male gratification into a requirement for the presidency.

In the first presidential debate last month, Trump interrupted Clinton 25 times in 26 minutes. When he brought up his treatment of Alicia Machada, he offered no apology. Four days later he went on a twitter rampage, calling Machada “disgusting” and a “con”, and alluding to a fictional sex tape.

And after all this, Trump has the temerity to say that Hillary Clinton is the one who is sexist, making accusations that she “bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated” the women involved in Bill Clinton’s affairs. Funny, that sounds exactly what Trump has repeatedly and publicly done to countless women over the years.

The poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou once said: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them; the first time.” Trump has never hidden who he is: a misogynist, a chauvinist, an entitled and immature bigot who sees women as objects – objects whose primary purpose is the sexual gratification of men. Anyone who is surprised by the latest video has been deluding themselves. Trump has always been Trump. The American public just hadn’t noticed until now.