The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

A Cheap ‘Rape’ Smear on Trump

Posted on | July 27, 2015 | 305 Comments

Let’s begin by saying I’m not a fan of Donald Trump, personally or politically. The first time he spoke at CPAC, Trump made a lot of protectionist noise in regard to China that struck me as both ignorant and irresponsible. Protective tariffs are just bad economics, as every intelligent person has understood since Adam Smith made the case against mercantilism in The Wealth of Nations. Tariffs are taxes, and the purpose of taxation is to produce revenue for the government. A protective tariff, by contrast, is not intended to produce revenue, rather it is intended to reduce foreign trade, which tends to benefit manufacturing interests at the expense of consumers and agricultural interests. Protective tariffs are usually accompanied by a system of domestic subsidies and regulations that beget crony capitalism. Whatever our economic problems, protectionism is not the solution, and so Trump’s China-bashing anti-free-trade rhetoric was distasteful.

So I’ve never been a fan of Trump-as-politician, but what the Daily Beast has done is as distasteful as a protective tariff: Resurrected a two-decade-old claim by Trump’s ex-wife Ivana that he “raped” her in 1989. This claim was made in their divorce and published in a 1993 book.

So what? When a rich man’s wife divorces him, she always accuses him of awful things. It’s a shakedown: “Give me the money I want or I’ll drag your name through the mud and make an ugly spectacle of it.”

Who knows if it’s true? And who cares? Ivana got her money and Trump moved on with his life. It’s over. Ancient history.

This doesn’t mean I’m in favor of Trump’s candidacy, but there was no point in the Daily Beast dragging this old mess out now.

 

Category: Politics

Comments

305 Responses to “A Cheap ‘Rape’ Smear on Trump”

  1. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    July 29th, 2015 @ 12:41 am

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uEZtWtHaRBc/Vbg_KqePqKI/AAAAAAAAxXU/7gnlGBOxZ-A/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-07-28%2Bat%2B7.48.39%2BPM.png

  2. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    July 29th, 2015 @ 12:42 am

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YyLyTxl6Al4/Vbg5FPCnrGI/AAAAAAAAxXE/ZP0o1M7Njqs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-07-28%2Bat%2B7.22.41%2BPM.png

  3. Wombat_socho
    July 29th, 2015 @ 2:00 am

    Do I look like one of those gorbal warmenist cultists to you?

  4. Wombat_socho
    July 29th, 2015 @ 2:02 am

    Some people are still butthurt over Hitler’s failure. As a somewhat humorous example:

  5. Wombat_socho
    July 29th, 2015 @ 2:03 am

    Maybe especially Yogi and Boo Boo. You know how Yogi felt about the ranger.