Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
What’s a guy have to do to get fired?
555 DAYS IN, LIFE IS GETTING STICKY FOR TEFLON DON
HE once bragged he was so popular he could gun someone down on New York’s Fifth Avenue and still be made President.
And as he reaches his 555th day in the Oval Office today, he may still feel like the Teflon Don.
But maybe, just maybe, a scandal might be about to stick to President Trump.
Lying about a passing liaison with a White House intern called Monica Lewinsky was once enough to turn the nation against another President, Bill Clinton.
But the testimonies of
72-year-old Trump’s alleged lovers – porn star Stormy
Daniels, 39, and ex-Playboy model Karen
McDougal, 47 – seemed to have bounced off him.
Not even his long-suffering wife
Melania turned a hair.
Yet the emergence of secret recordings of Trump discussing “cash” payments with his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen to silence Miss McDougal could be about to make life stickier for the Teflon one.
And his troubles increased further last week when it emerged Cohen, 51, was prepared to sing to the Mueller investigation into alleged Russian hacking in the 2016 election.
He’s set to claim the President lied about a meeting held by his campaign team at Trump Tower that year in which Russians were expected to offer them “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.
His bombshell testimony contradicts repeated denials by Trump and his eldest son Donald Jr that the President only learned of that meeting last July. The result could leave Trump Senior open to conspiracy charges. The best case scenario is that this would seriously damage Republican chances in the House of Representatives and Senate midterm elections in November.
And, in the worst case, put him at risk of impeachment.
For once, Trump’s presidency has hit a bump in the road.
Political analyst Patrick Finn said: “The midterms will give Trump a bloody nose. There is every chance he will lose the House – but it may come too soon for the Democrats.
“The next general election is two years away and they still have no stand-out candidate to oppose him.” Politics Professor Larry Sabato predicts Trump’s Republicans have a better than 50 per cent chance of losing the 218 seats required to control the House.
TARGETS
And that could leave the President vulnerable to an impeachment attempt. Out there in the states that voted him in, there is little doubt many are turning their backs on him. His so-called “America First” policy and his global trade war are backfiring big time.
Iconic US companies such as Harley-Davidson are being forced to move some production abroad to escape retaliatory tariffs imposed by the targets of Trump’s ire, such as China.
Only last week, his administration was forced to offer $12 billion in aid to US farmers hit by tariffs on goods like soybeans, pork, and beef.
US experts believe that over time the biggest losers in the war will be American consumers who face rising prices at the checkout.
And Trump’s bizarre tactic of throwing a punch then offering a handshake has also put Britain on
the spot. Weeks ago he branded the EU a “foe”. On Wednesday he struck a peace deal with EU President Jean-Claude Juncker, pledging a “new phase” in the relationship between the Commission and the States as they work toward “zero tariffs” on industrial goods.
That would almost certainly push Britain further back in the queue for post-Brexit trade deals.
But Trump’s hope of repairing his fractious relationship with the EU is nowhere near a done deal. The water is muddied by his love-in with the real foe of the UK and Europe, Vladimir Putin.
At the Helsinki summit, Trump repeatedly refused to blame his Russian counterpart for interfering in the 2016 Presidential race – defying the findings of all US intelligence agencies.
The President was labelled a “traitor” on both sides of the political divide in the US.
But in the main, Republicans rose to defend him, as they do whenever he’s under fire. Last week he was back on the attack after Iran leader Hassan Rouhani said: ”America must understand well that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars”.
The President turned on the capitals as he tweeted: “NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE”.
Trouble is, all his global posturing is like water off a duck’s back for the average American who cares little for affairs abroad. And while he makes big international threats, it’s the little alleged indiscretions at home that could eventually blow his world apart.
Accused by more than 20 women of sexual impropriety or an affair, Trump’s alleged extra-marital liaisons are now subject to an FBI investigation. As federal agents probe Cohen’s business dealings, questions are being asked over money allegedly paid to buy the silence of Daniels and McDougal. If proven, the move could pave the way for charges over possible misuse of campaign funds.
Last week, Trump exploded with rage after a tape of him, said to have been secretly recorded by his then lawyer Cohen, emerged. He is heard talking about paying “cash” for the rights to McDougal’s story from the Trumpfriendly National Enquirer. The model had told the tabloid she had a 10-month affair with Trump in 2006, beginning months after his son, Barron, was born to wife Melania,
48 – but the paper failed to run it.
Despite all the accusations,
Melania has stood loyally by his side in public – but rumours abound that they spend little time together. The First Lady can often go for weeks without being seen. She wept when Trump won the election after he assured her it would never happen.
But if Trump gets his way, the ex-model will be in the White House until 2024. So great is the US leader’s ego he began fundraising for a second term barely 12 months into office. But with another two years of undoubted scandal to follow, will America put him back? Many think it will.
Leading Republicans are fearful to speak out against him. Even his heartless new “zero tolerance” border policies – which have seen hundreds of distraught children removed from illegal immigrant parents who brought them here – fails to move them.
RIVALS
But what about the voters? Take this example. In Georgia last week, two Republicans were rivals in an election to be governor. One, Brian Kemp, was trailing after a vote so close a run-off was needed. Trump then endorsed him. And he won the run-off comfortably.
Trump, for ever dismissing any criticism as “fake news”, is now said to average 6.5 false claims a day. But the sad truth is the facts don’t seem to matter to millions of Americans.
And it may be down to a Playboy centrefold to turn the pages of history against him.