A newly published report alleges to reveal Trump's method of suppressing his affairs.
Former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who allegedly had a nine-month affair with the neo-Nazi-sympathizer-in-chief in 2006, detailed Trump's system in a new investigative piece by Ronan Farrow. Trump and McDougal first met at an Apprentice pool party less than two years into his marriage with Melania Knauss, the New Yorkerreported Friday.
"It was so obvious that a Playmate Promotions exec said, 'Wow, he was all over you—I think you could be his next wife,'" McDougal said. Trump got McDougal's number, and the two began "talking frequently." Eventually, they met for dinner in a private bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The first time they allegedly had sex, McDougal said, Trump tried to pay her for it.
As Farrow notes in the piece, McDougal's account has "striking similarities" with reports by other women who have claimed sexual relationships with the failed steak salesman, or who were allegedly propositioned or harassed by him. McDougal, who described her affair with Trump as consensual, ultimately sold her story to National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc. just days before the presidential election.
Though American Media paid McDougal $150,000 for exclusive rights, they never actually published the piece. The company's CEO, a Trump friend named David Pecker, apparently makes a habit of this so-called catch and kill approach. As for McDougal, she now regrets the deal—which was also supposed to include a fitness column—entirely. "It took my rights away," she said.
Read the rest of Farrow's piece, including excerpts from McDougal's eight-page handwritten account, here.
This latest update arrives shortly after a wave of news regarding Stormy Daniels. Trump's lawyer Michael D. Cohen claimed in a statement earlier this week that he paid Daniels $130,000 of his own money and that Trump was not involved. Cohen's comments, by Daniels' lawyer's estimation, mark a violation of the nondisclosure agreement. As a result, "Stormy is going to tell her story."
