Donald Trump’s Melania problem just got even worse for him

| 2:14 pm EST February 12, 2018
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Donald Trump has a problem. Well, he has dozens of problems, ranging from a failed presidency to impending criminal charges against him. But in this instance we’re talking about the fact that he picked the worst possible time to alienate his wife. His affair with an adult film actress more than a decade has finally come home to roost, and Melania has (justifiably) spent the past couple weeks finding subtle but clear ways to humiliate him for him. It turns out she’s created a problem for him that’s not going away.

Now that Donald is publicly insisting that we all believe the men who are accused of abusing women instead of believing the women, it’s bringing renewed attention to the fact that this is the guy who cheated on his pregnant wife with a porn star. Now that Donald is actively trying to create the appearance that he and Melania have patched things up, even that has become controversial. Trump tried taking his wife out to dinner this week. We don’t know (or frankly care) whether it went well. But we know it didn’t play well.

Even the usually staid Washington Post has published an article which low-key sarcastically mocks the fact that Donald and Melania were seen out on the town together (link). Even Donald’s attempts at making his marriage look healthy are being seen as him simply protesting too much.

As we’ve said before, we really don’t care that much about the health of Donald and Melania Trump’s marriage. That’s their problem. But considering the timing of their marital debacle, it is politically relevant. Trump’s sinking presidency is taking on water from all sides. He needs something to go right, or to at least look like it’s going right. This is usually the part where a failing president plays up the strength of his marriage or gets a new pet. Trump has rightly alienated his wife and he hates animals, so he can’t pull off either.