Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times columnist, Maureen Dowd, critiqued Stormy Daniels’s testimony in the Trump “hush money’ trial and concluded that if nothing else it demonstrated that Trump is not the man to be the president of the our country.  Here is an excerpt:

“we’re left with a two-bit case that has devolved into dirty bits, filled with salacious details — a spanking, a missionary position and ping-ponging insults like “horse face” and “orange turd.”

Yet, even if it plays like a cheesy old Cinemax “After Dark” show, it’s still illuminating. The case doesn’t hinge on Stormy Daniels’s story about her liaison with Trump, or even if the former president is lying when he says they didn’t have sex. (He would say that, wouldn’t he?)

It’s instructive about the moral values — or lack thereof — of our once and perhaps future president.”

She concluded:

“The compelling part of this case is not whether Trump did something wrong with business papers. The compelling part is how it shows, in a vivid way, that he’s the wrong man for the job.”

Below is the entire column.

Tony

————————————–

The New York Times

Opinion

Maureen Dowd

Donnie After Dark

May 11, 2024

Stormy was working blue, and the judge was seeing red.

Justice Juan Merchan chided Donald Trump’s lawyer Susan Necheles, saying he didn’t understand why she hadn’t objected to seamy details about the President and the Porn Star spilling out.

“Why on earth she wouldn’t object to the mention of a condom I don’t understand,” Merchan complained about Necheles.

But I wanted to hear about the condom — or lack thereof. The New York trial involves an abstruse legal strategy and illusory crime. It’s the weakest of the cases against Trump. It’s certainly not putting him on trial for the attempted coup d’état he incited or for treating top secret documents as dinner conversation fodder at his golf clubs. But it now seems almost certain that none of the other cases will be resolved before the election.

So we’re left with a two-bit case that has devolved into dirty bits, filled with salacious details — a spanking, a missionary position and ping-ponging insults like “horse face” and “orange turd.”

Yet, even if it plays like a cheesy old Cinemax “After Dark” show, it’s still illuminating. The case doesn’t hinge on Stormy Daniels’s story about her liaison with Trump, or even if the former president is lying when he says they didn’t have sex. (He would say that, wouldn’t he?)

It’s instructive about the moral values — or lack thereof — of our once and perhaps future president.

We know that Trump is a louche operator. But, given that he is leading in crucial swing states, it doesn’t hurt to be reminded of just how louche.

To paraphrase Mary McCarthy on Lillian Hellman, every word Trump utters is a lie, including “and” and “the.”

Trump’s legal team seems to be hoping that Hope Hicks and Madeleine Westerhout, his former aides who tearily testified for the prosecution, gave the impression that he didn’t want the Stormy story to come out on the eve of the 2016 election because he was tenderly concerned about how it would affect Melania, rather than selfishly concerned about his presidential aspirations.

Asked about Trump’s intentions, Stormy offered a shrug to the jury, saying, “I wouldn’t know what he wanted to protect.”

In her telling, Trump wasn’t concerned about his wife, with a new baby at home. He told Stormy not to worry about Melania.

Stormy said he was more focused on her resemblance to Ivanka and a possible threesome with another blond porn star, Alana Evans, of “It’s Okay! She’s My Mother in Law 13” and “Dirty Little Sex Brats 9.”

When Necheles tried to make Stormy seem tawdry on cross-examination, the mistress of exotica flipped the script. Sure, she was an opportunist and a finagler and a marketer of tacky products, she conceded in essence, but if it was OK for a man who ascended to the highest office in the land, wasn’t it OK for her?

Stormy made mincemeat of Necheles’s tone-deaf attempt to paint her as a shabby self-promoter with one response: “Not unlike Mr. Trump.”

As The Times noted, Stormy and Donnie were like twins: “He wrote more than a dozen self-aggrandizing books; she wrote a tell-all memoir. He mocked her appearance on social media; she fired back with a scatological insult. He peddled a $59.99 Bible; she hawked a $40 ‘Stormy, saint of indictments’ candle, that carried her image draped in a Christlike robe.”

Trump may have undermined his own case, falling prey to his own capacious and quivering ego. He clearly wanted his lawyers to push his unconvincing tale that — even though he paid $130,000 to keep Stormy from talking and even though she described what’s in his dopp kit and the details of his anatomy — the 2006 Lake Tahoe rendezvous was a figment of her imagination.

Necheles doggedly pursued this fruitless tack with Stormy, to her own and Trump’s detriment.

“You made all this up, right?” the lawyer pressed.

“No,” Stormy replied.

When Necheles kept pecking, noting that the actress, director and producer had starred in porn films with “phony stories about sex,” Stormy leveled her by slyly replying that if she had made up the story about her encounter with Trump, “I would have written it to be a lot better.” She also schooled Trump’s lawyer on the fact that “The sex is very real. That’s why it’s pornography and not a B movie.”

Trump came across as a loser in her account — a narcissist, cheater, sad Hugh Hefner wannabe, trading his satin pajamas for a dress shirt and trousers (and, later, boxers) as soon as Stormy mocked him. The man who was the likely source of the “Best Sex I Ever Had” tabloid headline, attributed to Marla Maples at the time, no doubt loathes Stormy for having described their batrachian grappling, as Aldous Huxley called sex, as “textbook generic.”

Like a legal dominatrix, Stormy continued to emasculate the former president after her testimony, tweeting: “Real men respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking the stand in court. Oh … wait. Nevermind.”

The compelling part of this case is not whether Trump did something wrong with business papers. The compelling part is how it shows, in a vivid way, that he’s the wrong man for the job.

Dear Commons Community,

Speculation is swirling over the role Nikki Haley will play in the next few months as she racks up primary votes against former President Trump after dropping out of the presidential race.

Haley, who exited the race in March, garnered 21.7 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s Indiana primary, the latest example of her winning a significant share of votes against Trump despite no longer being a candidate.

The former U.N. ambassador’s vote totals in recent contests have served as a warning sign for the former president and led to questions over whether she will endorse him or sit out the election entirely.

Haley ended her presidential bid in March, saying being a private citizen is “privilege enough in itself.” Last month, Haley joined the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, as its next Walter P. Stern chair.

And despite losing to Trump this cycle, Republicans say she still has a bright future ahead. As reported by The Hill.

“I think Nikki Haley is always looking to the horizon politically,” said Dave Wilson, a South Carolina-based Republican strategist. “She is looking for that opportunity that she can grab a hold of and run with it as long and as hard as she can.”

Haley is set to meet with roughly 100 donors next week in Charleston on Monday and Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal first reported news of the meetings, which are intended to serve as a “thank you” to the donors who supported her presidential bid. Haley does not have plans to endorse Trump.

But even though Haley lost to Trump in the primary, her successes with Republican primary voters are not lost on her supporters. Haley notably racked up around 17 percent of the Republican primary vote in Pennsylvania and Arizona, respectively — two of the country’s most consequential swing states.

While she was still in the race, Haley pointed frequently to data suggesting 40 percent of Republican primary voters supported her over Trump, arguing it was a sign of Trump’s vulnerability with the GOP primary electorate and more moderate voters.

“What we’re seeing is that Haley voters are going to be a really crucial and critical voting block,” said Brittany Martinez, a Republican strategist. “I think there is a lot at stake and from what I’m understanding it really sounds like neither the Trump nor Biden campaigns have tapped into that yet.”

The continued support for Haley in recent GOP primaries has stoked speculation over her next move. Wilson said the Haley votes are a sign of her staying power, but cautioned there are still questions about the voters coming out for Haley despite not being in the race.

“The question that I really begin to ask is, is her staying because of who she is or is her staying power there right now because it’s somebody other than Trump that these people are voting for,” he said. “We don’t know. Is it a pro-Haley vote or an anti-Trump vote?”

“That has got to factor into what Nikki Haley looks at for her long-term political career,” Wilson said.

Trump’s supporters point out Haley has received support from Democratic voters in primaries and that when confronted with the choice of Trump vs. Biden, Republican and conservative leaning voters will likely not choose Biden.

“I do not think wooing Haley voters is the best use of your time and resources,” said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist. “By the fall the GOP base is going to come home to Trump because it’s not like inflation and interest rates are going to improve and it’s not like the border is going to get anymore closed between now and then.”

Trump echoed this sentiment during an interview with WGAL in Lancaster, Pa., this week.

“Well, that’s a very small number because she was campaigning, she was spending millions of dollars, she was getting it from Democrats,” Trump said.

“All of those people are going to come to me because, first of all, what’s their choice? Biden, he’s the worst president in the history of our country,” he continued. “They’re all coming to me. We see it already.”

Still, Haley is seen as a figure that has sway with suburban voters, particularly suburban women, who have swung toward Democrats every election year going back to Trump’s first midterm election as president in 2018.

“That was her strength and we saw that again in Indiana,” O’Connell said. “Yes, it was an open primary. At the same time though, this election is going to be decided by inches on the Electoral College map.”

Reports on Saturday speculated that the Trump campaign is actively considering Haley to be his running mate. The former U.N. ambassador has not given any indication yet that she would agree to be on the same ticket as Trump.

Trump denied the speculation, saying that she is “not under consideration,” but that he wishes “her well.”

The last days of Haley’s campaign were marked by heightening animosity between her and Trump. Haley wished Trump well in her remarks announcing her exit from the race, but it’s unclear whether the two would team up on the campaign trail. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who was also the subject of Trump’s wrath in the primary, met with Trump late last month in Miami and the two pledged to work together this cycle.

It is my opinion that if she was running in November against Joe Biden rather than Trump, she would win.  I see her as a most viable candidate in 2028.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Neuralink’s first human brain implant experienced some mechanical issues in the weeks after its implantation, resulting in some loss of connectivity, Elon Musk’s computer-brain interface company revealed this week.  As reported by The Huffington Post and other media.

An undisclosed number of ultra-thin threads that help Nolan Arbaugh, who’s a quadriplegic, control a computer cursor with his brain unexpectedly “retracted” from his brain, the California-based company disclosed in a blog post Wednesday.To compensate for this loss, the company said engineers heightened the implant’s sensitivity to neural signals and adjusted how these neural signals translate into movements with the cursor. These changes, it said, ultimately resulted in “a rapid and sustained improvement … that has now superseded Noland’s initial performance.”

Though it was not suggested that the issue could pose a risk to Arbaugh’s safety, Neuralink did consider removing his implant after losing some of the threads, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the events.

The company has been in contact with the Food and Drug Administration, which approved Neuralink’s first human clinical trial a year ago this month, and it has told the federal agency that it believes it knows how to fix the implant’s problems, the Journal also reported.

A Neuralink representative did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

In a livestream video on Saturday, Arbaugh, who was paralyzed in 2016, demonstrated his ability to independently activate various computer programs with his brain. He had previously used a mouth-held stylus. The more time spent using the program, the more its accuracy improves, he said.

“Before I was having to do this in the most suboptimal way I think in the world, so it’s already changed my life as far as that goes, and it’s only going to get better,” he said while demonstrating his ability to play video games, access online books and use a language learning program.

Neuralink has said that it hopes to continually improve its cursor control and functionality to include text entry. It also has its sights on eventually controlling robotic arms, wheelchairs and other technology used by those living with quadriplegia.

This is incredible technology and reminds me of the first heart transplant operations in the 1960s.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

A Virginia school board voted yesterday to restore the names of Confederate military leaders to a high school and an elementary school, four years after the names were removed amid nationwide protests calling for a reckoning over racial injustice.

In a reversal experts believe was the first of its kind, Shenandoah County’s school board voted 5-1 to rename Mountain View High School as Stonewall Jackson High School and Honey Run Elementary as Ashby Lee Elementary.

Friday’s vote reversed a decision by the school board in 2020 when school systems across Virginia and the South were removing Confederate names from schools and other public locations in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.  As reported by The Associated Press.

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, which maintains a database of more than 2,000 Confederate memorials nationwide, is not aware of another case of a school system restoring a Confederate name that was removed, said senior research analyst Rivka Maizlish.

Overall, the trend toward removal of Confederate names and memorials has continued, even if it has slowed somewhat since 2020, she said, noting that the Army renamed nine installations named for Confederate leaders, and removed a Confederate memorial from Arlington National Cemetery.

In Virginia, local governments had been banned from removing Confederate memorials and statues until the law was changed in 2020, though the statute did not apply to school names.

School board members who voted to restore the Confederate names said the previous board ignored popular sentiment and due process when the names were stripped.

Elections in 2023 significantly changed the school board’s makeup, with one board member writing in an op-ed for the Northern Virginia Daily that the results gave Shenandoah County “the first 100% conservative board since anyone can remember.”

That board member, Gloria Carlineo, said during the six-hour meeting that began Thursday night that opponents of the Confederate names should “stop bringing racism and prejudice into everything” because it “detracts from true cases of racism.”

The lone board member to vote against restoring the Confederate names, Kyle Gutshall, said he respected both sides of the debate but believed a majority of residents in his district wanted to leave the Mountain View and Honey Run names in place.

“I don’t judge anybody or look down on anybody for the decision they’re making,” he said. “It’s a complex issue.”

During several hours of public comment, county residents spoke up on both sides of the issue.

Beth Ogle, a longtime resident with children in the school system, said restoring the Confederate names is “a statement to the world that you do not value the dignity and respect of your minority students, faculty and staff.”

Kenny Wakeman, a lifelong county resident, said the Stonewall Jackson name “stood proudly for 60 years until 2020,” when he said the “actions of a rogue police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota,” prompted a move to change the name, a reference to the killing of Floyd that propelled nationwide protests and debate over racial injustice.

Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson was a Confederate general from Virginia who gained fame at the First Battle of Bull Run near Manassas in 1861 and died in 1863 after he was shot and had his arm amputated. Jackson’s name was also removed from another high school in Virginia’s Prince William County in 2020 that is now known as Unity Reed High School.

Ashby Lee is named for both Gen. Robert E. Lee, a Virginia native who commanded Confederate forces, and for Turner Ashby, a Confederate cavalry officer who was killed in battle in 1862 near Harrisonburg, Virginia. A high school near Harrisonburg is also named for Ashby.

The resolution approved by the school board states that private donations would be used to pay for the name changes.

Shenandoah County, a largely rural jurisdiction with a population of about 45,000, roughly 100 miles west of the nation’s capital, has long been politically conservative. In 2020, Republican Donald Trump won 70% of the presidential vote in Shenandoah, even as Biden won Virginia by 10 points.

In Virginia, local governments were banned from removing Confederate memorials and statues until the 2020 law lifted those restrictions. Statues of Confederate leaders, including Lee, Jackson and Confederate President Jefferson Davis were removed from Richmond’s famed Monument Avenue in 2020 and 2021 following protests and vandalizing of the statues.

Disappointing move on the part of this school board!

Tony

Please click on to enlarge.

Dear Commons Community,

Last night, Elaine and I went to a Candlelight Concert at the Church of the Heavenly Rest in Manhattan with my son, Michael and his girlfriend, Lisa. The performers were Moriah Trenk (Piano) and Kinga Augustyn (Violin).  They performed a dozen songs in a classical style of music originally recorded by the 1960s-70s British Rock Group, Fleetwood Mac.  The program included:  You Make Loving Fun, Everywhere, Don’t Stop, and Go Your Own Way..

In addition to the fine music, the venue of the church which was lit with thousands of candles provided an ambiance unmatched in any other concert I have ever attended.  The combination of candles and music created a special serene experience.

BRAVA!

Tony

Please click on to enlarge.

Dear Commons Community,

A number of votes of no confidence in college leaders, mostly prompted by their handling of pro-Palestinian encampments, has surged in higher ed in the past month.  As reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

While faculty governance bodies and unions haven’t been shy about expressing dissatisfaction with their leaders in recent years, the recent surge, with at least eight no-confidence actions undertaken and more proposed by various campus bodies, underscores how fraught the job of college president has become. While complaints about police intervention in encampments have been the leading reason for many of the recent votes of no confidence, more-traditional issues, like concerns about shared governance, have been factors, too.

The votes of no confidence indicate that displeased faculty members are just another audience presidents must face at a moment when students, donors, and politicians are already closely scrutinizing their words and actions, particularly concerning the Israel-Hamas war. And while no-confidence votes hold no inherent power, they have in the past put presidencies on the ropes: A 2022 Chronicle analysis found that, about 51 percent of the time, a president on the receiving end of a no-confidence vote winds up leaving office within a year, though those departures are rarely publicly linked to the vote.

Tough times for higher education administrators!

Below is a list of some of the colleges taking votes of no confidence.

Tony

—————————————————————————————-

University of Kentucky

University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh

California State Polytechnic University-Humboldt

Barnard College

Indiana University at Bloomington

Two Schools at Emory University

The New School

New York University

Dear Commons Community,

In a 2012 deposition reported on by The New York Times yesterday, Kennedy explained how he sought medical care after suffering memory loss and mental fogginess in 2010. The independent presidential candidate was scheduled for a medical procedure after a brain scan revealed a dark spot showing up.

However, prior to the procedure, Kennedy said a doctor from a New York-Presbyterian Hospital called and told him that he believed the dark spot was something else — a dead parasite inside Kennedy’s head.

Kennedy said in the deposition, which was given as part of divorce proceedings, that he was told the spot on the scan “was caused by a worm that have gotten into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.”

The wannabe U.S. president with one of the most famous last names in America could split the vote on the November ballot, but it’s unclear whether he would take more votes from President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential nominees.

Kennedy, the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, has earned a reputation for controversial views on a variety of subjects. The 70-year-old environmental lawyer is one of the most influential spreaders of conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine misinformation, something that has prompted fierce criticism even from his own family.

According to The Times report, Kennedy said in a previous interview with the outlet that he has recovered from the memory loss and fogginess and did not require treatment.

In the past, Kennedy has been hospitalized for a condition known as atrial fibrillation, a heartbeat abnormality that increases the risk of stroke or heart failure that can occur in otherwise healthy adults. He said he now believes the condition has disappeared.

His campaign spokeswoman, Stefanie Spear, dismissed the idea that his health issues would have an effect on his fitness on the campaign trail.

I am glad we have such impressive candidates for our presidential election!

Tony

Dear Commons Community.

Speaker Mike Johnson yesterday easily batted down an attempt by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia to oust him from his post, after Democrats joined with most Republicans to fend off a second attempt by G.O.P. hard-liners to strip the gavel from their party leader.

The vote to kill the effort was an overwhelming 359 to 43, with seven voting “present.” Democrats flocked to Mr. Johnson’s rescue, with all but 39 of them voting with Republicans to block the effort to oust him.

Members of the minority party in the House have never propped up the other party’s speaker, and when the last Republican to hold the post, Kevin McCarthy, faced a removal vote last fall, Democrats voted en masse to allow the motion to move forward and then to jettison him, helping lead to his historic ouster.

This time, the Democratic support made the critical difference, allowing Mr. Johnson, who has a minuscule majority, to avoid a removal vote altogether. While for weeks Ms. Greene had appeared to be on a political island in her drive to get rid of yet another G.O.P. speaker, 11 Republicans ultimately voted to allow her motion to move forward.

That was the same number of Republicans who voted in October to allow the bid to remove Mr. McCarthy to advance — but back then, they were joined by every Democrat.  As reported by The New York Times.

“I appreciate the show of confidence from my colleagues to defeat this misguided effort,” Mr. Johnson told reporters shortly after Wednesday’s vote. “As I’ve said from the beginning and I’ve made clear here every day, I intend to do my job. I intend to do what I believe to be the right thing, which is what I was elected to do, and I’ll let the chips fall where they may. In my view, that is leadership.”

“Hopefully,” he added, “this is the end of the personality politics and the frivolous character assassination that has defined the 118th Congress.”

Congratulations to those who voted for Johnson and for putting the country ahead of their political parties.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who says she had a sexual encounter with Donald Trump, took the witness stand in the former president’s criminal trial yesterday, providing sometimes graphic testimony about a 2006 tryst she says they had in a hotel suite and the efforts to buy her silence in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.  As reported by NBC News.

The vivid testimony added a jolt of tabloid sensationalism to proceedings that just a day earlier focused on comparatively mundane topics, such as corporate record-keeping and financial reimbursement practices. Trump set the stage in dramatic fashion before anyone even took their seats in the courtroom Tuesday: “I have just recently been told who the witness is today,” he said in a since-deleted social media post. “This is unprecedented, no time for lawyers to prepare.”

Daniels, wearing an all-black outfit and black eyeglasses, spoke in a conversational and hurried tone, occasionally looking directly at the jury box as she testified about her humble upbringing, her pornography career and her relationship with Trump. State Judge Juan Merchan repeatedly reminded her to keep her answers short and speak more slowly so the court recorder could keep up.

Trump, brows furrowed, stared straight ahead during most of Daniels’ deeply unflattering testimony and sometimes whispered with his lawyers at the defense table. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to Daniels, and he denies her claims of an affair. His lawyers sought to persuade jurors that Daniels wasn’t credible and that she was driven by greed.

Daniels described a tumultuous childhood and a “neglectful” mother before she chronicled how she entered the adult film business, first as a performer and later as a writer and director. But the dramatic highlight of her testimony concerned her first meeting with Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006, when he was a reality television star as host of NBC’s “The Apprentice.”

In wide-ranging testimony about the 2006 encounter, Daniels told jurors that she was initially hesitant to accept a dinner invitation from Trump. She was 27 at the time, she said, and he was around 60 — her father’s age. But she ultimately took the advice of her publicist at the time, who she recalled saying: “It’ll make a great story. He’s a business guy. What could possibly go wrong?”

Daniels later described the moments she said Trump came on to her in a penthouse hotel suite, where he answered the door in “silk or satin” pajamas that reminded her of Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner. They spoke for two hours before she went to the restroom and returned to find him on the bed in his boxer shorts, she said. She testified that seeing him there felt “like a jump scare,” adding: “That’s when I had that moment where I felt like the room spun in slow motion.”

He didn’t force himself on her or “rush at me,” she said, but he implied he could help her. “I thought you were serious about what you wanted,” Daniels recalled Trump saying. She said she believes she “blacked out” at some point during sex, which was brief. Afterward, Trump told her “it was great,” called her “honey bunch” and suggested they get together again, Daniels testified. She said he hadn’t worn a condom. She said she tried to leave the hotel as quickly as possible.

Daniels told jurors that she felt ashamed that she didn’t stop the sexual encounter. In the months that followed, Trump and Daniels kept in touch. He suggested he could book Daniels a role as a competitor on a season of “The Apprentice,” she said, but that plan never came to fruition.

In the final days of the 2016 presidential race, Daniels accepted $130,000 from Trump’s team to sign a nondisclosure agreement about her alleged tryst with Trump. (Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer and “fixer” at the time, cut the check and later got reimbursed, a process that is at the center of the criminal charges against Trump.) The prosecution has tried to present the hush money payment as a part of a scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.

Daniels testified that she understood that signing an agreement that barred her from talking about her sexual encounter with Trump required them to act like they’d never met. “We had to pretend like we didn’t know each other at all, basically,” she said.

In an exchange with prosecutor Susan Hoffinger, Daniels insisted that she didn’t care about the exact dollar figure at the heart of the nondisclosure agreement. “I didn’t care about the amount,” she said. “It was just, get it done.”

Daniels testified that her personal life descended into “chaos” after her contractual arrangement with Trump and Cohen became public in a 2018 article in The Wall Street Journal, recounting that she and her young daughter were ostracized from their social circles.

Trump harassed her, too. Hoffinger displayed a social media post from Trump and asked Daniels: “Who do you understand Mr. Trump to be referring to as ‘horseface’ and ‘sleazebag’ in this post?”

“Me,” Daniels replied.

In a frequently tense cross-examination by one of Trump’s lawyers, Daniels acknowledged that she despises Trump, said she hopes he is jailed if he’s found guilty — and insisted that she started calling him names publicly only because he mocked her first.

Her names for Trump were quite graphic and not appropriate for a family blog. They are available in the Trump trial public record!

Tony