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What if Trump Told Us The Truth? What If He WAS Extorted By Stormy Daniels?

Submitted by Robin Messing on Wed, 08/07/2024 - 4:10pm

All right, boys and girls, gather round. Are you a Trump supporter? Welcome. Please come in. You are especially welcome today. In fact, today you get to go to the head of the line and take the comfiest seats so you can hear this wondrous “WHAT IF” story I’m about to tell.

Oh, I know I've been mean to your favorite President in the past. I've said that if he were Pinocchio, his nose would bump into the Andromeda Galaxy. And I've been rude to you as well. I've called you "Trumpanzees" hundreds of times on social media because I thought Trump had made monkeys out of you. (I know. Chimpanzees are apes and not monkeys, but I took poetic license.)

Well, not today. At least, not in this post. Today's message is too important for such childish nonsense. Today I have a sincere and heartfelt question I must ask you. A question involving Donald Trump and our national security. A question of "WHAT IF". I need to provide a little background before asking my big "WHAT IF" question.

Trump Claims He Paid Off Stormy Daniels Because She Extorted Him

 

Check out these three tweets from 2018 where Trump accused Stormy Daniels of being an extortionist.

His lawyer, Joe Tacopina, explained Trump's position in more detail in 2023. (Watch from 3:28 - 3:55)

 

President Trump has denied from day one having an affair with this woman. What he is, is an extortion victim. And by the way, it is regardless of whether he did or didn’t. He said he didn't. I believe him. And the evidence, I think is very powerful that he never had an affair with her. But more importantly, he is a victim of extortion because she came out right before the election and said. . . “Unless you pay me, I am going to make a public story,” about something that he says is completely untrue. 

And most importantly, Trump emphatically said, “I didn’t have sex with a porn star,” during the first presidential debate. (See 46:25 - 46:52 of the debate.)

 

So, what does that have to do with our national security? I'll get to that in a minute. First, let's try to figure out where the money to pay off Stormy Daniels came from. The simple answer is that Michael Cohen funneled his own money to Daniels through a company named Essential Consultants LLC. This is an uncontested fact. What Trump and his attorneys have contested is whether Trump reimbursed Cohen for the hush money payment. Of course, the jury in New York determined that he did do just that, but I know that you think the jury was rigged. So let's ignore what they said and ask ourselves this: Is there any hard-core evidence that we can't ignore that will help us answer this question?  Well, yes, there is. Let's start with this:  Rudy Giuliani let the cat out of the bag when he said that Trump reimbursed the payment to Daniels.

 

There's even more bad news for Trump. Someone else let the cat out of the bag. His name is Donald Trump.

 

And there is even MORE evidence that Trump reimbursed Michael Cohen for his payment to Stormy Daniels. Before Cohen turned on Trump, the two filed a joint document in court that flat out stated that Trump reimbursed Cohen. (Hat tip to Ryan Goodman for pointing this out.)

 

Let's take a closer look at Trump and Cohen's Joint Opposition To Motion For Reconsideration.  The plaintiff that this motion is referring to is Stormy Daniels, and EC is Essential Consultants, LLC.

 

 

So according to Trump and HIS legal filing in court:

  1. Stormy Daniels extorted him. (Daniels vigorously denies she extorted him. I believe she didn't, but my belief means nothing here.)
  2. He never had sex with Stormy Daniels.
  3. Though Michael Cohen took the initiative to pay off her extortion attempt, Trump ultimately approved of Cohen's payment and repaid Cohen.

Furthermore, we know that when Cohen paid off Daniels, he was doing what Trump wanted him to do. Trump does not hesitate to stiff his lawyers if he is not satisfied with their services. Just ask Rudy Giuliani. Or you could ask any of the hundreds of workers and vendors, and even former lawyers who Trump allegedly stiffed because he did not like their services. If Trump didn't want to pay off Daniels's alleged extortion, then he would not have reimbursed Cohen.

So, to summarize:

  1. Trump vigorously denies he had an affair with Stormy Daniels.
  2. Trump claims that Stormy Daniels extorted him for money with a bogus story about an affair.
  3. Trump paid Stormy Daniels hush money to keep quiet about an affair that never happened.

 

My What IF Questions

Why Trump wanted to keep the affair that he says never happened hushed up is a matter of contention. He claims that he wanted to shut Daniels up so that Melania wouldn't learn about it. The jury that convicted Trump determined that Trump paid her off to hide the affair from voters. But, as I said before, I know you believe the jury was rigged against Trump, and I invited you in here, dear Trump supporters, so I will assume what you assume. I will give Trump the benefit of the doubt for argument's sake. So here are my "What If" questions.

What if there never was an affair between Trump and Daniels? What if Trump paid off Daniels when she extorted him solely to keep Melania from learning about an affair that never happened? In short, what if Trump is telling us the truth?

If all this is true, then Donald Trump has practically announced to the world that he can be easily blackmailed. He can be blackmailed over any embarrassing or illegal thing he may have done. And more importantly, he can be blackmailed over things that never happened. And giving in to blackmail to prevent Melania from finding out about his supposed affair is an even worse scenario than giving in to blackmail to change the likely outcome of the election. If Trump had paid off blackmail in order to win an election, then we MIGHT not have to worry quite as much about him giving in to further blackmail because once he is re-elected, he will not need to win any more elections--hence he MIGHT be a little less likely to be blackmailable. But if he had paid off an extortionist to prevent Melania from finding out about his supposed affair, then he will be vulnerable to future blackmail attempts every day that he remains married to Melania, and the need to keep secrets from her will remain indefinitely.

Worse still, Trump wants us to believe that there never was an affair between him and Daniels. That makes Trump's apparent vulnerability to blackmail so much worse than if there HAD been an affair. By claiming that there never was an affair, Trump has sent a terrible message to potential blackmailers around the world.

Hey blackmail me! Don't have any blackmail material on me? No problem. I've got you covered. You don't need any blackmail material. Just go ahead and make shit up to blackmail me and I'll do whatever you want me to do in order to prevent you from telling the world that I did something that I did not really do.

And that is the worst message that we could be sending out to our adversaries, especially now that AI can be used to generate realistic looking fake videos. How easy would it be for Putin to whisper in Trump's ear that he's got a video of him watching two hookers peeing on the bed that the Obamas once slept on in a Moscow hotel? Or it could be the Iranians who will blackmail him. Or the North Koreans. 

And a blackmailable Trump could do more damage to the United States than any other blackmailable person who becomes president could do. Trump wants to be a dictator. Trump is surrounding himself with people who will help him become a dictator. And Trump has a good chance of succeeding in his quest for dictatorship, as I have discussed in detail in this six-part series. Most alarming, the Supreme Court just passed a ruling that effectively makes the president a king. (See Justice Sotomayor's powerful dissent that starts on page 68 of this PDF.) Dictator Trump would be dangerous for America, even if he had the fortitude to say "NO" to a blackmailer. But he doesn't have the strength of character to put our national interest over his personal interest for the good of the country. As General John Kelley, Trump's longest serving Chief of Staff said,

The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it’s more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.

Now, imagine the damage Trump could do to our national security if he were controlled by the Russians or the Chinese or the Iranians. Donald Trump would be the horsehair worm of American politics--if a horsehair worm could be controlled by an outside force. What is a horsehair worm? A horsehair worm is a parasite that infects insects, snails, or fish. They take over the minds of their hosts and make them do things they would not normally do--often jeopardizing their lives in the process. Take the horsehair worm and the praying mantis, for example. No self-respecting mantis would ever jump in a pool or lake. Not so with a mantis that has eaten the larva of a horsehair worm. The larva of a horsehair worm grows inside the mantis's gut. Once it reaches adulthood, it commandeers the mantis's brain and forces the mantis to jump in the nearest body of water. The adult worm then exits through the mantis's rear and spends the rest of its life in the water. The mantis might survive, or it might drown.

Dictator Trump will take over the body politic of America. He will march it wherever he wants it to go, and the American people will be hard-pressed to defend themselves against Trump's worst impulses. That is bad enough. But what if Donald Trump is controlled by blackmailers who can force him to march where THEY want him to go? And what if those blackmailers want to destroy America?

You might be sitting there thinking, "Aha! I see a flaw in your argument! If Trump becomes dictator, he will have absolute power. He can censor any news outlet he wants, and he can even shut down the internet if necessary in order to prevent a really bad story about him from gaining traction. And if he can do that, then no one can blackmail him. We don't need to worry about this issue!"

Not so fast. Even with the Supreme Court's terrible decision that, for all practical purposes, puts the president above the law, Trump will not become a dictator overnight. It will take some time for him to consolidate absolute power, and until he does, he will be vulnerable to blackmail. And heavily censoring or shutting down the internet has its own risks. It could cause economic disruption and trigger millions of people to protest in the streets. Dictators fear being toppled by mass protests, and though mass resistance often fails, it IS occasionally successful.  Even if Trump becomes an absolute dictator, he might still think that giving in to blackmail will cause him fewer problems than trying to contain kompromat about him through dictatorial means.

So now I must ask my final question to you, dear Trump supporters.

 

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU???

 

You claim to be America First. You want America to be the most powerful nation on Earth. You don't want ANYONE to mess with Uncle Sam. Hell, you've practically adopted the "Don't tread on me" Gadsden flag as your second national flag. Yet, you want to elect a president who can be led around by the nose. You want to elect a President who could be used by our enemies to Make America Go Away.

 

WTF???? WHY???? WHY????

Make It Make Sense!

 

My GUESS is that your support of Trump isn't coming from the fact that he is an adjudicated rapist who has said that Hannibal Lecter is a great guy. Or that he is a CONVICTED FELON.

And I'm GUESSING you don't support him because you are so appalled by people greeting each other by saying "Happy Holidays" around Christmas time that you think they should replace it with the more Trumpian greeting of "ROT IN HELL."

And I'm guessing you don't support him because you agree with him calling Kristi Noem a "terrific person" after she published a book describing how she shot her dog in the face.

My guess is that you are still supporting Trump for one of two reasons:

  1. You hadn't thought through the implications of Trump's claims and you didn't realize his blackmailability endangered our national security. Well, now you know, so you have no excuse to continue supporting Donald Trump--unless you secretly HATE America and your professed patriotism is really hateriotism.
  2. You find that for whatever reason, Kamala Harris so odious that you cannot bring yourself to vote for her. If that is the case, then nothing I say can persuade you to vote for her. But at least vote for a third-party candidate like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Jill Stein, or Cornel West.

 

Two Objections To This Column

By now you'd be jumping out of your chair and screaming, "Objection, Your Honor," if this were a courtroom instead of a blog post by a retired dude with too much times on his hand.

Objection 1: Donald Trump was nearly assassinated because Democrats smeared him as a Hitler. How DARE you publish this and give potential assassins one more reason to try to take out Trump.

I unequivocally condemn the assassination attempt, and I have a message for potential copycats: Don't even THINK about doing it. Are you trying to plunge us into a civil war? I am writing this for the sole purpose of stopping Trump at the ballot box. In addition, I seriously doubt that Thomas Crooks was motivated by Democrats inciting violence against Trump. In any case, Trump and the Republicans have done far more than those on the left to create an environment where people think political violence is acceptable, and Trump IS a fascist wannabe dictator and he needs to be called out on this to prevent him from gaining power. I discuss all this in more detail in this column.

Objection 2: Didn't you watch Donald Trump's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention? Weren't you paying attention when he stressed how important it was to heal the nation? (Watch 0:38 - 1:44 of Trump's acceptance speech.)

The discord and division in our society must be healed. We must heal it quickly.  As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together or we fall apart. I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America.

How can our nation unite when people like you are accusing Donald Trump of being weak and blackmailable? And comparing him to a horsehair worm is beyond the pale and dehumanizes him.

I can understand why you are upset with me comparing Trump to a horsehair worm. And normally I don't like to use Trump's tactics. (He did, after all, dehumanize his enemies by saying they live like vermin.)

 

I will note, however, that there are a few subtle differences between my analogy comparing Trump with a horsehair worm and Trump's dehumanizing of his enemies. First, Trump is dehumanizing hundreds, if not thousands of people, whereas I am referring to only one person. Second, Trump's accusation is generalized--it pertains to the entire lives--i.e., the entire existence of his opponents, whereas my reference only applies to one specific characteristic of Donald Trump--his vulnerability to blackmail. Third--and most importantly--there is a pressing need to drive home my point as dramatically as possible because our national security at stake. There is no better way to drive the point home than to leave you with the vivid imagery of the horsehair worm.

You still might find my justification for using the horsehair worm analogy unacceptable in light of Trump's pledge to heal the divide and unite the country. To which I say, REALY? REALLY?? REALLY?????? If that is what you think, I respectfully ask you to read my column, "Trump Pledged to Heal the Divide In Our Country at the RNC Convention. How Is It Going So Far?"

There is one more objection that is so serious that it deserves its own subheading.

 

Hey, Robin, HOW DARE YOU TELL OUR ENEMIES HOW THEY CAN BLACKMAIL DONALD TRUMP!!!!

Thank you for reading this far, dear MAGA reader. I imagine that more than a few of you are hopping mad and screaming, "YOU LIBTARD! HOW DARE you tell our enemies they can blackmail our future president! You are a traitor and should be forced to listen to Roseanne Barr sing the Star-Spangled Banner on endless loop 24/7 for all eternity. 

I can understand your concern, but I doubt that I'll be telling our enemies anything they don't already know. I recognized Trump's vulnerability to blackmail on my own, but while I was doing research for this column, I discovered that Matthew Yglesias recognized Trump's weakness and wrote about it for Vox six years before I did. Yglesias wrote:

A president who is in the habit of cutting secret six-figure checks is a president who is subject to a wide range of implicit and explicit blackmail by anyone ranging from a porn actress to a foreign intelligence service.

Indeed, Trump’s most recent account of the situation manages to both underscore how easy it is to gain leverage over him and how vanishingly unlikely it is that Daniels is the only scandal that’s been swept under the rug. . . .

In essence, the exculpatory story is that the president hands out hush money so readily that his attorney has carte blanche to cut six-figure payoff checks on his behalf without checking with the client. Indeed, in this case we’re supposed to believe that the president was so willing to part with his money (this is a man who once cashed a 13 cent check that was sent to him as a prank) that the woman with dirt on him didn’t even need to be telling the truth to be worth paying $130,000.

I highly recommend you read Yglesias's column because he discusses several areas where Trump is vulnerable to blackmail that is outside the scope of this column.

If AT LEAST two people can independently figure out that Trump is vulnerable to blackmail, then the odds are high that someone in Russia's or China's or Iran's or North Korea's intelligence agencies have figured it out as well. After all Yglesias and I have figured this out based on openly available sources. No special intelligence gathering technology or James Bond-type special agents were needed. 

But suppose I'm wrong. Suppose not one of the hundreds, if not thousands of intelligence agents employed by Russia or China or Iran or North Korea would have figured this out on their own without my telling them. That would make me a super-genius for being able to figure out what they couldn't figure out. That would make me smarter than their intelligence elites who have each spent roughly 2,000 hours a year trying to find America's vulnerabilities. 

Well, I've got news for you. I'm not that smart. I am nothing special. I am just a retired old fart who spends too much time on the internet. But if you still think that I am a super genius, even after reading my disclaimer, then I have one more piece of news for you. If I am smarter than all the agents in the intelligence services of our enemies, then I am also a hell of a lot smarter than you. And if I am a hell of a lot smarter than you, and if you have an IQ that is higher than that of a methed-up amoeba swimming in a vat of Jack Daniels. then you should take heed of what I tell you.

VOTE FOR KAMALA HARRIS!

Our national security depends on it. And you just heard this from the world's smartest man (at least if you still think I'm smarter than everyone in the intelligence agencies of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, despite my denial.)

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