Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now – always.
― Albert Schweitzer
What does Putin have on Donald Trump? Everyone with half a brain is asking themselves the question because the president is acting guilty again. Why congratulate the Russian despot on an election that was never in doubt? Why doesn't this president condemn in no uncertain terms the poisoning of an ex Russian spy on a NATO ally's home soil? Why is POTUS afraid of the Mueller probe if he is so convinced of his own innocence? Questions, questions...
I feel as though I have been stuck on the topic of Donald Trump as presidential pretender. This will be my 28th diary on the topic and I am nearing the point of obsession. Trump as the illegitimate successor to a line of presidential succession is a meme that plays well with those of us who make up the resistance. To the Trump base and to Trump himself this assertion is the one aspect of the criticisms of the administration that rankles them most. The president is adamant that he bested Hillary Clinton, fair and square, and his victory was not only well earned but also an event of historic proportions. The argument surrounding the size of the inaugural crowd that marked the first day of business in his administration foretold Trump’s personal limitations. For sure, he had won the presidency with less than a majority of the popular vote, but his electoral college totals had sealed the legitimacy of his election. Except that it did not fit the narrative that Trump was creating for himself. He was revising history in the moment.
Follow the money?
Well. this moment does not augur well for him and history will inexorably resist this president’s attempts to revise it. The question that will forever be attached to Donald Trump’s behavior since his decision to become a candidate is “why?”
- Why does this president embrace Russian despot, Vladimir Putin?
- Why did Russia choose to place its finger on the scale to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton?
- Why is the president of the United States at war with his intelligence advisors?
- Why do current Republican leaders remain silent in the wake of mounting evidence of Russian influence in the Trump presidency?
There is speculation that Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 national election will eventually come up with an answer, and further speculation that the answer to these questions involves the time-honored prosecutorial tactic of “following the money.” The Trump organization has for years been dealing with questionable investors. These investors have the one thing that Trump craves and respects, money. In the world of finance, the reputation that the Trump organization has earned is that accruing money is an end in itself. And so, following the money trail for projects within the Russian sphere is a likely nexus for Trump and Russian interests to arise. The Trump organization’s need for funding for projects like the Moscow Towers deal provides an ample honeypot to entrap a less than careful Trump, placing him under Putin ’s control. Money laundering and its attendant manipulations are both understandable and convenient answers explaining Trump’s inexplicable Russian turn.
The Republican response to this aberrant political tack, while puzzling, can be explained under the rubric of political reality. Republicans have decided to maximize their political capital by ignoring the potential political fallout from Trump’s misadventures in return for short-term political gains. Their allegiances to conservative donors and their causes apparently are stronger than their allegiance to the nation. The beneficiaries of their miasma are the Russian interests protected by Donald Trump.
The above scenario represents a reasonable response to the questions posed by the Trump subservient response to the Russian threat to our democracy. It's the money at the root of all the evil--both Russian money ensnaring Trump's outsized avarice, and donor funds keeping Congress in check.
Or the dossier?
There are other outstanding scenarios that attempt to explain the otherwise unexplainable. The so-called Steele dossier contained salacious assertions regarding Russian prostitutes and the entrapment of Trump during the 2013 Miss Universe contest held in Moscow. According to the details supplied in the dossier, Trump booked the Presidential Suite in the Moscow Hilton specifically to sully the same bed used by President and Mrs. Obama, who had previously stayed in the suite on a visit to the Russian capital. The theory states that Putin was capable of videoing the encounter in a time-honored Russian example of Kompromat. Collecting damaging information which placed political and business leaders in compromising positions is a particularly common example of Russian tradecraft. The "pee pee tapes' theory, however, has been walked back by the dossier’s author, Christopher Steele, and has been dismissed as improbable given the time restraints of Trump’s one night stay in Moscow. There is evidence that Trump’s time that evening is mostly accounted for and precludes extracurricular urination. Too bad, as I would prefer watersports to political bloodsport.
The real existential threat...
A better option that would be far more damaging and which would explain far better both the Trump actions and those of his party. It involves another American billionaire and years old reports that they had engaged in sex with a 13 year old in 1994. This theory has been offered up before, but with recent events, it begins to make more sense. The President's treatment of women is well documented. His dalliances and denials are baked into the Trump persona. After all, he was elected after reports of womanizing, sexual harassment, and the infamous Billy Bush tape were thoroughly reported in the press. The “Fake News” rejoinder to each new bombshell proved to be both prophylactic and explanation enough for both “the base” and voters sitting on the fence—not quite happy with their choice. The explanations were good enough to satisfy the majority of white, college-educated woman who voted for Trump. The latest eruptions starring Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal among others are less illustrative than confirming. Trump is not afraid of their stories or the thoughts of their attornies suing him They are part of his legend. The notoriety and publicity feed his “brand” and affirm his wealth—both of which Trump would plead guilty. This is a man who wears the title of “ladykiller" and playboy proudly.
I would also suggest that Trump’s business dealings are not the existential threats to his presidency one might think as they are "baked” in his reputation as a wheeler-dealer. But to be outed as a pedophile is another consideration. Long before Christopher Steele's dossier and its titillating innuendo, it was known that Jeffrey Epstein was trafficking in young girls and offering them to his rich and important friends.
In 2008 Epstein pleaded guilty to a single charge of soliciting an under-age prostitute and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, in a deal that was heavily criticized as being overly lenient. He served 13 months and had to register as a sex offender. Daily Mail.com
The names associated with Epstein's escapades include Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, and Kevin Spacey. A South Florida lawyer who handled the cases of 3 Epstein “Jane Does" reported that Epstein paid out $5.5 million in hush money to his 3 clients. Sound familiar? It is further reported that a woman was 13 when Trump raped her. The civil suit filed in April 2016 was dismissed in June of that year and refiled in November. The woman's lawyer, Lisa Bloom stated that the now 33-year-old woman dropped her suit due to death threats that were reportedly made to her and her family.
While this may appear to be grist for tabloid news and "old news" the story becomes more relevant as the latest accusations by Karen McDougal, Stormy Daniels, and Lisa Zervos lend credence to their claims and support the 1994 claim. Pedophilia and the stain it would cause to the Trump reputation as a lady killer is the existential threat that Donald Trump runs from. It was known that Jeffrey Epstein, back in the day, videotaped his friends' liaisons with underaged children. If those tapes exist, they would be far more powerful to Vladimir Putin than the tapes described in the Steele dossier. After all, most of us find it easy to believe that Trump is capable of defiling the bed out of pique that his predecessor used on the Obama visit to the Russian capital. Even the rape and harassment charges brought by the 20+ women who claim that Trump abused them are far less adverse than a charge of raping a child.
For Donald Trump, the biggest problem is that it is not so hard to believe that he could be so callous and so criminal. After all, this is a man whose first wife claimed that she was raped by him. This is a man who has been exposed as having at least 2 adulterous affairs within months of his new bride giving birth to their son. This is a man whose son Donald Jr. is facing divorce after a similar gambit with a young woman as his own wife was giving birth.
The president can convince his base and his party leaders that his philandering is nothing more than "Trump being Trump.” What would be far more difficult would be convincing a judge that raping a child is somehow justified. Convincing a nation should be far more difficult. As his daughter Ivanka once famously said, there is a special place in hell for child abusers. And so, let us prepare the way. Karma can be a bitch.