Stormy Whether

The Washington Post has a story about an upcoming meeting between the orange twittler and evangelical leaders, which is to be "a celebration of the various policy achievements of this administration,” whatever those are.

The meeting appears to be an effort to keep the bond close between Trump and this particular slice of U.S. evangelical leadership – to show him deference and praise while reminding him of their priorities, and to make a public splash the way a similar meeting did in early 2016, ostensibly to remind American Christians that there are hundreds of pastors who say Trump deserves their vote.

One of the things they don't expect to talk about in their meeting is the one thing that is most on their minds: will the Stormy Daniels thing discourage evangelical voters from going to the polls this November?

    Now, personally, I don't care about sex scandal stories in general.  I don't care if Senator So-and-So cheated on his wife with his secretary.  I'm mildly amused if pro-family Congressman Whatsisface was caught blowing his male staffer in his office, but that's his business.  Now if they're using public funds to fascillitate or hide their philandering, that's different. Or if they're otherwise breaking the law, you know.  But there are still worse things.
    Where the law comes into the Stormy Daniels thing is the $130,000 payment for her silence.  The question is whether she was paid as a matter of course (i.e. is this something the orange twittler does with all of his women?) or was this to prevent bad press ahead of the election? If the former, why was the payment made twelve years after the "affair," and twelve days before the election? If it was the latter, that would be considered a campaign contribution. But according to the law, the maximum any one person can give to a campaign is $2,700. Any more than that is a violation of Federal law.
    To further complicate matters, Mr. Cohen, who made the payment, has been saying out loud to anybody who will listen that he expected to be reimbursed. By whom? Because if he has violated campaign finance laws, and other people were involved, then that is conspiracy, which is one of the charges that would have gotten President Nixon impeached. And according to the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Cohen has said that he was late with a couple of payments because "he couldn't reach Mr. Trump during the hectic final days of the Presidential campaign."

Right now, the President of the United States, members of his family, and some of the people who work(ed) for him are being investigated for treason.

The man in the office of President does no understand the job of President. He doesn't understand how the Government works. He does not understand the Constitution. He's trying to run the Government as if it is a for profit corporation, and he's using his office to enrich himself, his family, and his peers. He has spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on golfing trips, and much of that money goes into his own pocket because he owns the golf course. The people he has hired to work for him are acting as businessmen who are enjoying the perks of their jobs instead of as representatives of the people they are supposed to be serving, and then seem surprised that "scandals" erupt concerning the taxpayer money they waste on travel and furniture.

His general incompetence has completely disrupted US foreign policy, giving comfort to our enemies while antagonizing our friends. What does he think he's doing with Qatar, or Mexico? And why is he trying to out crazy the crazy guy in North Korea? Why does Russia get to tell him we shouldn't be in Syria (or who our Secretary of State should be, for that matter?)
    As Eliot Spitzer put it last spring, "Donald Trump, within a matter of months, has sacrificed the US leadership of the world. In four and a half months he has given away eighty years of a construct, post World War II, that led to growth, freedom, democracy -- he's thrown it out.  And you know who the big winner is? China. He ran against China, but he's given it all to China."
 
And now, in the last few days, because of his ignorance on the subject of trade, he has begun a tit-for-tat feud with China that threatens "to light American agriculture on fire."

There is so much going on with this administration, things that represent a real danger to this country, and it's rather telling that the evangelicals in the story might be more concerned with sexual indiscretion than they are with his lying, corruption, incompetence and national security lapses. But for me, if he wound up being taken down by a stupid little sex scandal, that would be absurdly anticlimactic.