Trump, Handling Scandal

DONALD TRUMP is not on trial for anything having to do with sex, or sleeping with women other than his wife, or anything like that, really, although, in a way he is. What he is accused of, unless I misunderstand, are violations of campaign election laws.Falsifying financial statements in order to conceal other crimes. Among these are using campaign donations for things unrelated to the election campaign,like bribing women into silence, and for attempting to mislead the voters, a murky one, it seems to me, since what do politicians do, other than deliberately mislead voters? It all began with the Access Hollywood tape, if you might recall. Trump,on tape. bragging about being a sexual predator. Most of America heard it, and was shocked and horrified, if not particularly surprised. Eventually, of course, Trump turned it all to his advantage, as he so often does. Like he himself said, he could shoot somebody dead on fifth avenue in broad daylight without losing popularity (among his cult supporters). But the incident, which briefly looked like it might derail Trump's fledgling political career before it had fairly begun, spooked Trump. Hence he decided to try to purchase the slience of several of his various paramours at that time, for which he is now on trial. So, a sudden thought came to me, which can be dangerous. The thought was about Trump, and his strategy for dealing with scandal, which can be even more dangerous. Now that twelve jurors have miraculously been chosen, and, seemingly equally miraculously Trump is actually being tried in criminal court - maybe just maybe, I was thinking... he took the wrong aproach. Maybe he should have never made any attempt to silence anybody, including Stormi Daniels. For one thing, he wouldn't be on trial now in criminal court for financial fraud, or bribery, or whatever the charges are, and for another, maybe no damage would have come to Trump's political career because of anything Stormi Daniels or someone else might have said or revealed. What would Stormi have doen, without getting Trump's hundred and fifty grand of bribery money, or whatever it was? Nobody will ever know. Stormi can't talk about it; she's been paid not to. And, even if she did, could we trust her to tell the truth? Suppose she had, instead of getting paid, gone on a talk show tour, announcing to the world her affair with Trump, providing salacious details, the whole works, right in the middle of the 2016 presidential campaign? Would that necessarily have hurt Trump, or his chances of winning the election? Access Hollywood certainly didn't, correct? In retrospect, I am even inclined to suggest that the (in)famous Access Hollywood tape not only failed to damage Trump politically, that it actually helped him, indeed, that it may have helped him win the election, may have even been the difference...this notion sounds far less crazy than it once did. The salacious scandals not only do not appear to deter America's conservative evangelical Christians from supporting and loving Trump as the choice of Jesus for president, but to actually enhance their geniune esteem for him. Somebody suggested to me that revelations by Stormi about Trump's infedility to his wife would have been beyond the tolerance of even the scandal loving evangelical Christians, and that may be true. On the other hand, Donald Trump, usually politically savvy and astute with his finger on the pulse of America, maybe, just maybe, missed out on a golden opportunity.