October 16: On This Day In 2018
As our citizenry has come to learn, it’s not illegal to have an affair, it’s not illegal to date a pornstar, and it’s not illegal to pay your girlfriend to remain quiet about your affair. But if you’re running for office, and you make that payment to boost your odds of winning, you’re required to tell to Federal Election Commission about the payment.
Stormy Daniels claims she and Trump had a brief affair, shortly after Melania gave birth to Barron. Donald, who did NOT want the American voters to learn quite what a cheater he is, preferred that Stormy NOT tell her story to the public. So, he paid her $130,000 to stay quiet and, therefore, not disrupt his campaign. His bribe was completely effective! Twelve days later, an unsuspecting American populace made him president. Trump, of course, had mentioned none of this to the FEC.
It's apparently rather hard to keep such crimes hidden, though, and eventually it came out what he had done. (Stormy, btw, was at least the second woman to whom he or his associates paid $100K+ to hide the details about their alleged affairs).
Once it came out what had happened, Trump went on the Full Apology Tour. He tearfully admitted to Oprah how much he had wounded both Stormy and his own family. He emphasized to George Stephanopoulos that he had put in the work necessary to repair his relationship with Melania. And he revealed to Fox & Friends that he had since put up a matching $130K to one of Stormy’s favorite charities, to help save the children.
And, of course, he promptly notified the FEC about his earlier deception.
Nah. What Trump did actually, OTDI 2018, was to maniacally attack Stormy and her lawyer on social media after a federal judge dismissed one of her lawsuits against him. Continuing his pattern of coming up with loving pet names for the women in his life, he called Stormy “Horseface.” She fired back with a description of his anatomy not fit for this family newsletter.
This Horseface episode, btw, came shortly after he mocked Christine Blasey Ford. And he laughed at Megyn Kelly for bleeding out of her “whatever.” And he made fun of Mika Brzezinski for “bleeding badly” after a facelift. And he ridiculed the appearance of the wife of a GOP rival. And this was not long after… well, you get the point. Here are a few more compiled from early in Trump’s presidency.
Again, though, insults aside, Donald Trump has now been found guilty on 34 felony counts related to his coverup efforts.
In 2016, when they elected him our leader, the American public had been illegally blinded to Trump’s true character. It has since been revealed. There’s no excuse in ’24 for repeating the mistake of ’16.
Dive Deeper
Yahoo quotes the always-eloquent Trump
The AP fleshes out the details
On This Day In The Trump Administration: Trump calls Stormy Horseface