In his book “The Art of the Comeback,” Donald Trump declares, “There’s nothing I love more than women, but they’re really a lot different than portrayed. They are far worse than men, far more aggressive, and boy, can they be smart.” Considering his countless demeaning statements on women (another one being, “I have seen women manipulate men with just a twitch of their eye — or perhaps another body part”), it’s no surprise that President Trump is a notorious womanizer.
Ronan Farrow’s recent New Yorker article detailed Trump’s system for concealing past affairs and cites two women in particular, porn star Stephanie Clifford (AKA Stormy Daniels) and former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal as examples of the president’s infidelity. On Tuesday, March 20th, the New York Times broke the news that McDougal is now suing American Media Inc. (the company that owns The National Enquirer and whose chief executive, David J. Pecker, is a friend of Trump’s) for paying $150,000 for the story of her 2006 affair with Trump. A.M.I., known for buying and burying stories that could damage the reputations of Pecker’s allies, subsequently killed the article. McDougal’s lawsuit claims that Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, was secretly involved in the payoff, and that the media company and her lawyer at the time misled her about the deal.
News of Trump’s other alleged affair broke in January 2018. The Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen (the same lawyer allegedly involved in McDougal’s case), paid Stephanie Clifford (Stormy Daniels) $130,000 in October 2016, shortly before the election, to keep her affair with Trump a secret. Both Trump and Cohen denied the affair and subsequent payment but in February 2018, Cohen backtracked and admitted to paying the hush money out pocket. Clifford herself also denied the affair and payment in a statement provided by Cohen to CNN: “Rumors that I have received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false. If indeed I did have a relationship with Donald Trump, trust me, you wouldn’t be reading about in the news, you would be reading about it in my book,” she wrote. Following Clifford’s denial, In Touch published a 2011 interview in which she admits to sleeping with Trump in 2006, just four months after the birth of his son Barron Trump.
In the beginning of March, Clifford filed a civil suit against Donald Trump arguing that her agreement not to disclose their affair is invalid because it was never signed by Trump. Clifford’s lawyer, Michael Avenatti, confirmed on the Today show (clip above) that she did have a sexual relationship with the president. Avenatti also claims that six additional women have come to him alleging affairs with Trump: “two of them—at least two have [nondisclosure agreements]. We’re in the very early stages of vetting those stories,” he stated on CNN’s “New Day” program on Friday, March 16th.
