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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDonald Trump, a Playboy Model, and a System for Concealing Infidelity
One womans account of clandestine meetings, financial transactions, and legal pacts designed to hide an extramarital affair.Source: The New Yorker
In June, 2006, Donald Trump taped an episode of his reality-television show, The Apprentice, at the Playboy Mansion, in Los Angeles. Hugh Hefner, Playboys publisher, threw a pool party for the shows contestants with dozens of current and former Playmates, including Karen McDougal, a slim brunette who had been named Playmate of the Year, eight years earlier. In 2001, the magazines readers voted her runner-up for Playmate of the 90s, behind Pamela Anderson. At the time of the party, Trump had been married to the Slovenian model Melania Knauss for less than two years; their son, Barron, was a few months old. Trump seemed uninhibited by his new family obligations. McDougal later wrote that Trump immediately took a liking to me, kept talking to me - telling me how beautiful I was, etc. It was so obvious that a Playmate Promotions exec said, Wow, he was all over you - I think you could be his next wife.
Trump and McDougal began an affair, which McDougal later memorialized in an eight-page, handwritten document provided to The New Yorker by John Crawford, a friend of McDougals. When I showed McDougal the document, she expressed surprise that I had obtained it but confirmed that the handwriting was her own.
The interactions that McDougal outlines in the document share striking similarities with the stories of other women who claim to have had sexual relationships with Trump, or who have accused him of propositioning them for sex or sexually harassing them. McDougal describes their affair as entirely consensual. But her account provides a detailed look at how Trump and his allies used clandestine hotel-room meetings, payoffs, and complex legal agreements to keep affairssometimes multiple affairs he carried out simultaneouslyout of the press.
On November 4, 2016, four days before the election, the Wall Street Journal reported that American Media, Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, had paid a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for exclusive rights to McDougals 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, who describes the President as a personal friend. As part of the agreement, A.M.I. consented to publish a regular aging-and-fitness column by McDougal. After Trump won the Presidency, however, A.M.I.s promises largely went unfulfilled, according to McDougal. Last month, the Journal reported that Trumps personal lawyer had negotiated a separate agreement just before the election with an adult-film actress named Stephanie Clifford, whose screen name is Stormy Daniels, which barred her from discussing her own affair with Trump. Since then, A.M.I. has repeatedly approached McDougal about extending her contract.
Trump and McDougal began an affair, which McDougal later memorialized in an eight-page, handwritten document provided to The New Yorker by John Crawford, a friend of McDougals. When I showed McDougal the document, she expressed surprise that I had obtained it but confirmed that the handwriting was her own.
The interactions that McDougal outlines in the document share striking similarities with the stories of other women who claim to have had sexual relationships with Trump, or who have accused him of propositioning them for sex or sexually harassing them. McDougal describes their affair as entirely consensual. But her account provides a detailed look at how Trump and his allies used clandestine hotel-room meetings, payoffs, and complex legal agreements to keep affairssometimes multiple affairs he carried out simultaneouslyout of the press.
On November 4, 2016, four days before the election, the Wall Street Journal reported that American Media, Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, had paid a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for exclusive rights to McDougals 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, who describes the President as a personal friend. As part of the agreement, A.M.I. consented to publish a regular aging-and-fitness column by McDougal. After Trump won the Presidency, however, A.M.I.s promises largely went unfulfilled, according to McDougal. Last month, the Journal reported that Trumps personal lawyer had negotiated a separate agreement just before the election with an adult-film actress named Stephanie Clifford, whose screen name is Stormy Daniels, which barred her from discussing her own affair with Trump. Since then, A.M.I. has repeatedly approached McDougal about extending her contract.
Read more: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trump-a-playboy-model-and-a-system-for-concealing-infidelity-national-enquirer-karen-mcdougal
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Donald Trump, a Playboy Model, and a System for Concealing Infidelity (Original Post)
demmiblue
Feb 2018
OP
One of the reasons I love my sister is the New Yorker subscription she gave me
Gabi Hayes
Feb 2018
#3
mainer
(12,022 posts)1. LoL. Trump insulted her mother, calling her "that old hag?"
and she pointed out that "that old hag" was Trump's age.
50 Shades Of Blue
(10,031 posts)2. Thank you, Ronan Farrow!
Gabi Hayes
(28,795 posts)3. One of the reasons I love my sister is the New Yorker subscription she gave me
It will be in my mailbox today
Ronan!
dalton99a
(81,564 posts)4. Kick
Deb
(3,742 posts)5. Thus was conceived the Loyalty Oath