Last week two men in the White House were felled by domestic-violence allegations. One, David Sorensen, was a speechwriter; another, Rob Porter, a top aide. Porter had kept his job despite two ex-wives telling the FBI that he'd physically and mentally abused them. Both men would go on to resign—but on Friday President Donald Trump issued a statement in which he essentially defended Porter, emphasizing how he had declared his innocence, and then wished him well. The next morning the President characterized the words of Porter and Sorensen's ex-wives as "mere allegations."

Now Jennie Willoughby, the second ex-wife of Porter's and a former school teacher, has responded to the President's denial in a powerful essay for Time. In it, she speaks to the difficulty of stepping forward with allegations, the persistence of not being believed, and of remaining resilient in spite of it.

Willoughby, toward the top of her essay, commented on Trump's tweet: "There it is again. The words 'mere allegation' and 'falsely accused' meant to imply that I am a liar. That Colbie Holderness is a liar. That the work Rob was doing in the White House was of higher value than our mental, emotional, or physical well-being. That his professional contributions are worth more than the truth. That abuse is something to be questioned and doubted…. Thankfully, my strength and worth are not dependent on outside belief—the truth exists whether the President accepts it or not."

In her piece, she also called out deeper social norms that make it far easier to avoid addressing our collective culture's "worst secrets" than to confront them.

"The tendency to avoid, deny, or cover up abuse is never really about power, or money, or an old boys’ club," she wrote. "It is deeper than that. Rather than embarrass an abuser, society is subconsciously trained to question a victim of abuse. I would call it an ignorant denial based on the residual, puritan, collective agreement that abuse is uncomfortable to talk about."

Willoughby mentions that even she fell into the trap of questioning whether Porter had really abused her or not. "I almost allowed my societal conditioning to override what my heart knows to be true: Abuse is scary and demoralizing and degrading. It chisels away at your self-esteem and self-worth until you are unsure whether your version of reality is valid or not."

Toward the end, she posits that abuse isn't political—it's social, "and the tone has just been reset by the White House. If the most powerful people in the nation do not believe my story of abuse in the face of overwhelming evidence, then what hope do others have of being heard?"

Read her powerful essay in full here.

RELATED: The Domestic Abuse Allegations Rocking the White House Should Be a Wake-Up Call for America—And a New Front for the #MeToo Movement