Here’s the thing about Donald Trump’s abortion payoffs
Whatever doctrinal schism may exist these days between the Catholic Church and white conservative evangelicals, they are nonetheless in lockstep in their mutual condemnation of abortion. Nevermind that their shared antipathy arrived relatively late in the history of their respective dogmas. (Is there, after all, anything quite so passionate as a new convert?) It is the one topic to set the blood of either camp to a boil.
Enter Donald Trump and the recently renewed buzz about his having paid for the abortions of several women. Yes, Trump’s penchant for impregnating women and financing their abortions is an old yet persistent one. But those whispers received new life during former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s furtive train ride down to Washington and back to New York this week. Among other items, there is speculation that Trump’s abortion fundings have been a topic Cohen discussed with Robert Mueller during that clandestine trip.
The relevant question, as far as Mueller is concerned, is did any of the alleged abortions (some say as many as eight), underwritten by the “president,” occur during the 2016 campaign? And if they did, would they constitute one or more campaign finance violations, of the same felonious gravity as the Stormy Daniels payoff?
But more than even this, as noted, abortion is a nuclear hot button within the more extreme flavors of conservative Christians. Campaign finance violations or no, there can be little doubt that should evidence of Trump’s abortion underwritings surface with evidence, it could do significant damage to his diminishing support.
This could be a pill simply too bitter for some of his more zealous religious base to swallow, let alone cloak in the hypocrisy of denial. If Donald Trump really did impregnate several women and cause them to undergo abortions, it may turn out to be a bodyblow that not even the recently self-anointed “great moral leader” will be able to evade.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.