First, it was a porn star and now the detailed story of an alleged affair between Donald Trump and a Playboy model. A new story in The New Yorker by Ronan Farrow reports Donald Trump had an affair with Playboy model Karen McDougal in 2006, around the same time he reportedly had an affair with the porn star “Stormy Daniels,” all while married to Melania. Once again there was a “payoff” to stay quiet, only this time Farrow says it came from the National Enquirer, not Trump’s personal attorney. The Enquirer is helmed by Trump’s personal friend, David Pecker. Farrow writes:
“…the publisher of the National Enquirer, had paid a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for exclusive rights to McDougal’s story, which it never ran. Purchasing a story in order to bury it is a practice that many in the tabloid industry call “catch and kill.” This is a favorite tactic of the C.E.O. and chairman of A.M.I., David Pecker”
This story was first reported by the Wall Street Journal just days before the Presidential Election in 2016. But that story was just about the payment made to McDougal. Farrow obtained new details including an 8-page document detailing the affair.
But, will it matter to Trump’s base? Will Teflon Don get another pass? After the Stormy Daniels affair surfaced last month, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative evangelical lobbying group told Politico:
“We kind of gave him—‘All right, you get a mulligan. You get a do-over here.’”
So, what now? Two mulligans?