Americans waiting to hear more - under oath- from Stormy Daniels at Trump's trial in Manhattan

Stormy Daniels and the Comeuppance of Donald Trump.

Echo opinion published in The New York Times by Jessica Bennett.

Sometimes, I lie awake at night wondering whether Donald Trump is afraid. (Maine Writer disclosure- I also😡😳😏 lie awake wondering how much longer Americans are going to ignore the dangerous Donald Trump!)

Does he think he’ll go to jail? Lose his fortune? Does he sleep easier after ranting in ALL CAPS on Truth (#fakenews😕) Social?

Surely I’m not the only one losing sleep over the threat this man poses to the country. (You are not alone!) But, lately, as I perversely scroll through the news on my phone, I’ve had a comforting thought: Mr. Trump is probably obsessing, too.

His Truth (#fakenews) Social account indicated as much last week. Mr. Trump posted a picture of a statement by Stormy Daniels, the erotic film star and a central figure in his hush money trial in Manhatan. In the statement, dated 2018, Ms. Daniels denies that the two ever had an affair (a statement she has since recanted). Mr. Trump, in his Truth (#fakenews) Social post, writes: “LOOK WHAT WAS JUST FOUND! WILL THE FAKE NEWS REPORT IT?”

Trump givess editorial cartoonists reason to imagine hush money and 'stormy' weather. (The Columbus Dispatch)

(To be clear, Trump, the 2018, statement was widely reported at the time- IOW not "just found".....😟😈)

Trumpti-Dumpti may be running for president of the United States, but it’s not American voters who are on his mind. 

Watching and listening to him for years now, reading him on social media and, more recently, observing his behavior in the face of criminal charges and civil lawsuits, I come away with the surreal yet frankly inspiring conclusion that this very powerful man has become consumed with the “nasty” women who are at long last holding him to account.

Sometimes I lie awake at night wondering whether Donald Trump is afraid.

Does he think he’ll go to jail? Lose his fortune? Does he sleep easier after ranting in ALL CAPS on Truth (#fakenews) Social?

Surely I’m not the only one losing sleep over the threat this man poses to the country. But lately, as I perversely scroll through the news on my phone, I’ve had a comforting thought:  Trump is probably obsessing, too.

His Truth (#fakenews!)Social account indicated as much last week. Trump posted a picture of a statement by Stormy Daniels, the erotic film star and a central figure in his hush money trial that is set to begin on Monday. In the statement, dated 2018, Ms. Daniels denies that the two ever had an affair (a statement she has since recanted). Trump, in his Truth Social post, writes: “LOOK WHAT WAS JUST FOUND! WILL THE FAKE NEWS REPORT IT?” (To be clear,  Trump, the 2018, statement was widely reported at the time.)

Trumpti-Dumpti may be running for president of the United States, but it’s not American voters who are on his mind. Watching and listening to him for years now, reading him on social media and, more recently, observing his behavior in the face of criminal charges and civil lawsuits, I come away with the surreal yet frankly inspiring conclusion that this very powerful man has become consumed with the “nasty” women who are at long last holding him to account.

Letitia James. Fani Willis. E. Jean Carroll, and her lawyer Roberta Kaplan. And, of course, Stormy Daniels. The five women who are living rent-free in Trump’s (delusional!)mind these days.

If my middle-of-the-night Truth (#fakenews!) Social tours are any guide, Mr. Trump wakes up not infrequently to the thought of Ms. James, the attorney general of New York, and calling her names like “Peekaboo.” He seems to think about her, and the civil fraud case she brought against him, during the day, too — sometimes driven to post about her “big, nasty and ugly mouth,” or draft campaign emails about her “filthy hands,” which he seems to think are furiously casting a spell in the “witch hunt” against him.

Then there is Ms. Daniels, who says she is “absolutely ready” to testify against Trump — a scenario his lawyers had been desperately trying to avoid, seemingly worried about her embarrassing their client on the stand. (Trump denied the affair and the charges.) She is also the subject of a sympathetic new documentary, “Stormy,” in which she describes the toll that the whole ordeal has taken on her, and details odd superstitions that Trump apparently has about his hair.

Ms. Willis, of course, is leading the Georgia election interference case against Mr. Trump, who is still trying to get her removed from the case. Ms. Carroll won an $83.3 million defamation case against him and is threatening to sue again, and Ms. Kaplan has a long history of going head-to-head with the former president (and winning).

Women. I suspect, he never thought they would be the ones to corner him, making the case about his craven and possibly criminal behavior. Trump has long treated women as objects, targets, supplicants; everyone knows the “Access Hollywood” recording, but he has demeaned and degraded them for years, as Megan Twohey and Michael Barbaro documented in The Times in 2016. He seems to mostly associate women with sex — they are “driving me crazy,” he said of all the “beautiful women” at a recent event at Mar-a-Lago — or with spite (see how he treated Nikki Haley, Megyn Kelly, Hillary Clinton and others). He will woo them, he will grab them, he will scorn them, he will mix them up, he will call them names. But he never took them as much of a threat, until now.