Can Trump survive a divorce? Could Melania bring help down a presidency? There is such a thing as the final straw that breaks a president’s back, and if you want to believe in karma in this lifetime, there’s that too. The impact of #METOO can’t be overlooked.
It is possible that what has kept Melania in this loveless marriage to an insensitive narcissistic husband is a prenuptial agreement that leaves her with "little" money if she divorces the president unless there is good cause. If she had a decent lawyer I assume there would be such a clause. Could two of his extramarital affairs going public be such a cause to dissolve the agreement?
This isn’t meant to be a treatise about why Melania might have stayed married to Trump for so long, there are many articles about this, for example, “Why Women Stay with Controlling Men.” There are a few reports that she was planning to leave him if he lost the election, and that she cried when he won. This is from Michael Wolff:
Donald Trump Didn’t Want to Be President — One year ago: the plan to lose, and the administration’s shocked first days. Jan. 3, 2017
Melania Trump, who had been assured by her husband that he wouldn’t become president, could return to inconspicuously lunching. Losing would work out for everybody. Losing was winning.
Shortly after 8 p.m. on Election Night, when the unexpected trend — Trump might actually win — seemed confirmed, Don Jr. told a friend that his father, or DJT, as he calls him, looked as if he had seen a ghost. Melania was in tears — and not of joy.
Stormy Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford) now feels free to go into detail about her sexual relationship with Trump because she thinks that Michael Cohen's admission he made a hush money payment to her negates her non-disclosure agreement.
Now Playboy model Karen McDougal is speaking out about her affair with a married Donald Trump even though she signed an agreement not to tell her story to anyone else besides the National Enquirer. (Daily Beast and The New Yorker)
The impact of #METOO can’t be overlooked:
McDougal fears that A.M.I. (owner of National Enquirer which bought her story be killed it) will retaliate for her public comments by seeking financial damages in a private arbitration process mandated by a clause of her contract. But she said that changes in her life and the emergence of the #MeToo moment had prompted her to speak. In January, 2017, McDougal had her breast implants removed, citing declining health that she believed to be connected to the implants. McDougal said that confronting illness, and embracing a cause she wanted to speak about, made her feel increasingly conflicted about the moral compromises of silence. “As I was sick and feeling like I was dying and bedridden, all I could do was pray to live. But now I pray to live right, and make right with the wrongs that I have done,” she told me. McDougal also cited the actions of women who have come forward in recent months to describe abuses by high-profile men. “I know it’s a different circumstance,” she said, “but I just think I feel braver.” McDougal told me that she hoped speaking out might convince others to wait before signing agreements like hers. “Every girl who speaks,” she said, “is paving the way for another.” New Yorker
We already know that Trump can get away having multiple credible accusations of sexual assault leveled against him. His supporters shrug these off, either not believing the women or giving him a free pass because he's their hero.
If Melania leaves him because she believes these accusations would the disbelievers stick with him?
Could a divorce for cheating in his marriage be the final straw for members of Congress still choosing to overlook all the impeachable Trump transgressions because they fear that this could lose them their seats in 2020? Polls suggest Trump supporters don’t care much about the growing evidence that Trump is a traitor (read veteran reporter James Risen’s “Is Trump a Traitor?”), and are giving him a Get Out of Jail Free card not only on that but on his history of sexual assault. But this can change.
It may be unlikely. But it isn't impossible. Karma sometimes happens in this lifetime. If the final straw, the piece de resistance, the coup de grâce finally putting down this disaster of a president comes from his mistreatment and abuse of women it would be immensely empowering to all abused women.
….
Addendum
My related story from Feb. 10th: Karma's a woman! Polls show Trump support taking a hit among women.
Friday, Feb 16, 2018 · 5:24:02 PM +00:00 · HalBrown
Playboy playmate’s alleged 9-month affair with Trump raises serious security concerns
EXCERPT:
As Elura Nanos of Law & Crime explained, McDougal may have put herself in a potentially precarious legal situation by revealing her story:
Legally speaking, there’s good news and there’s bad news for Karen McDougal. The bad news is that her contract with AMI is probably enforceable, and she certainly breached it by talking to Ronan Farrow. There are a few arguments McDougal could raise, and while they aren’t likely to prevail, they’ll at least increase the cost of AMI’s litigation. She could argue that the contract wasn’t properly formed, because either she didn’t truly understand the nature of the agreement, or because she was pressured into signing the contract. Such arguments are likely losers – but it doesn’t hurt to try. McDougal could also argue that the scope of the contract is vague, and that “any married man” doesn’t necessarily include Donald Trump. That argument is a little better, but still won’t win, as there seems to be significant evidence that everyone involved knew protecting Trump was the purpose of this agreement.
There is good news, for the former Playmate, though. Breach of contract is not the same thing as commission of a tort. When one person harms another in tort (for example, by defaming, harassing, or assaulting that person), the sky can often be the limit with regard to damages. But with contract law, there’s far less possibility of a courtroom windfall. McDougal’s contract with AMI likely spelled out exactly what AMI’s damages would be if she breached in a “liquidated damages clause”. For all McDougal’s talk of moral epiphanies, it’s far more likely that she made a smart financial choice. If the story is worth more than the liquidated damages clause in the AMI contract, why not sell it?
Appearing on "Good Morning America" Friday, Farrow explained that more than just McDougal's legal status could be in jeopardy.
“This is the interesting and troubling dimension, George, these, you know, dirty stories about high-profile individuals would be used as leverage over those individuals,” Farrow told co-host George Stephanopoulos. “Obviously national security implications here when that happens to be the president.”