Melania Trump hints at divorce. Here’s what that could mean for Donald Trump’s criminal scandals.
Two weeks into her disappearing act, Melania Trump is finally speaking to the public – through a friend who’s dishing to an entertainment industry publication. Melania has apparently vanished so she can “take stock” of everything that’s gone wrong in her life of late. That’s a pretty strong hint that she’s considering leaving Donald Trump. Maybe you don’t care about their marriage. But here’s how a divorce could quickly impact Trump’s criminal scandals.
Some folks are getting hung up on spousal privilege, but that isn’t really a factor here. Even without a divorce, the law allows Melania Trump to waive her spousal privilege and testify against Donald Trump in any criminal matters, and there’s nothing Donald can do to stop it. Trump’s criminal federal and state-level trials are down the road anyway. What we really want to focus on is how this impacts Trump’s scandals right now.
As we’ve consistently spelled out from the start, the primary factor in Donald Trump’s ability to survive in office is his approval rating. His numbers are historically low, and while he keeps claiming it’s climbing, and some of the media have parroted that line, the polling averages say he’s been basically stagnant all year. Melania’s approval rating has been climbing ever since the Stormy Daniels story surfaced. If they get divorced, Melania’s approval rating will go even higher, and Donald’s will plummet.
Republicans in Congress have always eyed how Donald Trump is polling nationally, and how he’s polling in their district or state, before deciding how to deal with him. If there’s a separation or divorce, his resulting lower approval rating will cause an incremental number of Republicans in Congress to pull back their support for him, or come out against him. That’ll serve to further soften him up before the Democrats take the majority in the midterm elections and force him out. But there’s more to it in the short term.
Try to imagine rigging the election in your favor, being unexpectedly named the winner, being totally in over your head with a job that you don’t want, and being eaten alive by your mounting criminal scandals, even as your cognitive abilities are failing. Then try to imagine your wife divorcing you in the midst of all this, and having to face constant questions about the divorce, while fighting in court to keep a prenup intact, while also trying to hide the fact that you’re so deeply in debt to foreigners that you have a negative net worth. It’s not hard to see how Donald Trump’s ability to focus on fighting his scandals, which is already scatterbrained as it is, would go totally out the window if Melania divorces him.
