Earlier in the week , the lawyer for Michael Cohen – Donald Trump’s personal attorney, fixer and keeper of all his past secrets and dodgy dealings – released a tape in which he and Trump are heard discussing how exactly to fund the silencing of a former Playboy model, Karen McDougal who’s story about her alleged affair with Trump caught a lot of attention as you’d expect it would. Cohen apparently wanted it to be handled legally, while Trump had other ideas as the tape runs saying…….
Cohen – “We’ll have to pay,”
Trump’s reply – “Pay with cash.”
If this story had come out at the time Cohen and Trump had that conversation, just two months before the 2016 election. Its fair to assume it would be extremely damaging to the electoral campaign and would of played massively into the hands of Hillary Clinton who was already a formidable opposition.
But as we’ve seen with trumps presidency it seems like he is pretty much invincible when it comes to scandal and not many people would now bet on the Cohen tape story destroying Trump. Instead, the story will dominate the news cycle for a few hours, and be ignored by Fox News before being replaced by something else. Trump seems to batter off any challenge and seems to dominate the media as it seems no scandal could effect him as he dismisses anything that could tarnish the reputation he’s so proud of as fake news.
Trump’s core supporters are still happily flying his flag as his approval rating among Republicans remains high (though there are signs that the group of Americans who identify as Republicans is shrinking, perhaps suggesting that it’s only true Trump supporters who are proud to wear the party label). Trump’s bold claim in 2016 that he could shoot people on Fifth Avenue and still not lose votes remains as valid as ever.
Politics according to JT 