I was watching news coverage of this and it seems like the big question was, "How does a this woman go from being a massage parlor owner to becoming the US connection between Trump and wealthy Chinese businessmen. How did she get the access?"
Given Trump's proximity (Mar-a-Lago), his lack of morals, his sexual appetite, his relationship with Bob Kraft at the same massage parlor, I am going to go out on a limb here and posit that this enterprising business woman has some compromising information on Trump.
Let's face it, Trump is a walking compromise.
None of this stuff matters until suddenly it does.
That is why I like Pelosi's strategy: wait until we have all of the facts.
The Supreme Court does not discuss things like impeachment because it is a political question. People who think that democrats should stand on principle haven't been paying attention. Sure, in a healthy democracy, you stand on principle. But if the GOP had any morals, we would not be in this situation in the first place.
We have to distinguish between what we want (to see this corrupt, racist thrown in jail) and what we absolutely must have - get him out of office.
As of today, the GOP is just fine with Trump's behavior as bizarre as that is. That means Trump can't be thrown out of office through impeachment. Trump will of course explain to the Nation that it means he was exonerated.
We can't afford to give him that opportunity.
54
Imagine for one moment how Republicans would react if President Barack Obama had a scandal such as this.
A madam. Access to the president and his cabinet assured to Chinese business men. Access to GOP legislators on Capitol Hill.
The stench of a parlor the madam previously owned and a modern era sting operation.
And that becomes yesterday's story. And everyone just moves on.
33
The Republican’s had better win in 2020. If they don’t, we are going to line our prisons with them.
19
Trump: From Russia with Love.......
7
Does Mar-a-Lago offer sexual services on the QT?
18
Time to don the hazmat suit, goggles, gloves, and thigh high boots. Don't forget your respirator!
5
Maybe I am wrong but I thought that the correct reporting of Kraft should include that he was a personal friend of Trump but supported and gave money to the Clinton campaign.
1
I detest Trumpism and its associated graft and corruption. However, what is new in this article is uninteresting and what is interesting is not new. While the Lang issue is sleazy and unsavory, nothing the piece uncovers is explicitly illegal. As such the content is more suitable for a gossip column than for the NY Times. I don't know why the paper wasted its space and Ms Goldberg her considerable investigative talents on this piece.
4
Lets be clear. Those women were trafficked and being held there against their will.
10
Join your local Indivisible group and get busy fighting this stinky, swampy mess!
9
"Under Trump, America’s leadership and its secrets are for sale." quite a jump... but you're preaching to the choir... the majority of the NYT readership will close their eyes and swallow your biased logic... free thinking?... not in vogue... pick a side!
1
I am shocked that the president and his organization are involved with such people! Next there will be illegals working at his properties!
22
Now this is just going a bit too far! Now the lefty-fake-news-NYT is claiming that Trump (& family) hob-nob with massage parlor owners where his best friends frequent & the owner hires sex trafficing victims then buys illegal access to the President for Chinese bussnessmen!! Where's the crime, here !?
3
Brilliantly stated, Ms. Goldberg. When every wave that crashes ashore is a tsunami, one becomes inured to the ravages that unfold in its wake. Such is the case with the Trump crime family and their nefarious sycophantic cohort. Just when you attempt to grasp the incomprehensible level of sleaze and Satanic edicts from the dotard-in-chief, yet another detestable scandal surfaces, taxing one's ability to comprehend it and sort it all out. It's dizzying. Yet it's all part of his MO; while the porn star antics and pay-to-play histrionics at Mar-a-Lago occupy Page One, he's busy raping the environment, ripping children from mothers, causing irreversible damage to our position around the world, and depriving the needy of Food Stamps, Medicare and Medicaid — all while ensuring that his cronies line their pockets. Nixon was a Cub Scout compared to Trump. The unfathomable aspect of all of this is that we believed our system of checks and balances would prevent a psychotic kleptocrat from ascending to power. Apparently not. The infection deepens, spreads, and makes us all sickened to the point of wanting to surrender. Yet persevere we must. January 2021 can't come soon enough. The least-qualified Democrat would still be better than the cesspool we're forced to endure now.
22
The most vile, corrupt and morally offensive president ever!
25
The pimping has stayed strong in this family since grandpa founded the business.
It appears like one sees pimps and prostitutes holding stronger together throughout the extended family line. Strong bonds get built and greased with Benjamins, baby. The big recurring question that needs to be settled anew again and again as forces, services, performances and positions shift, to solve differences ahem... down the business road: will a good threat do the trick or do we have to throw a bunch of hush money at the problem? That's where the fixer comes in, but behind him is always looming large the Big Fixer (his spell is always to be pimped as yuge! He's like the capo di tutti capi, the Godfather, the God Emperor) unless the small guy got removed from grace because of... problems...
Mack-n-Massago and Money-Laundro in Mar-a-Capo.
Complicit is a description not explicit enough for going all in and joining the Trump business model and his team of only the bestest people.
We all know this Capo is kaput though.
The capo is ready to roll and experience a Big Fall. A slow motion spectacle to behold.
11
The Times has sunk pretty low on their traditional journalistic standards to publish a hit piece trying to smear Trump with the massage parlor business. The powers that be at the Times must really hate the guy. Let's try to focus on real news.
3
The man who knows where to "grab 'em," knows how to pay for Play-mate and porn star, and still get a "mulligan" from his Christian evangelical base has nothing to worry about from Li Yang unless she has a "tape."
11
Trafficking of women for sex and employment of undocumented individuals at Mar-a-Lago...funny how those unwanted "aliens" can come in handy for Trump and his sleazy cronies.
14
Disgusting. Enough said
10
Bill Ayers seems so trivial now and so long ago. We're living in an alternate universe. Welcome to "Trump World"
5
Huh. I wonder why this isn't seen as a big scandal? Could it be because newspapers like the NY Times are keeping it off the front page?
It's weird how some things are really big scandals, requiring endless coverage--like Hilary's emails, say--and then other things ... aren't.
It's funny how that works, isn't it, NY Times?
9
Stories like this, exactly what enquiring minds want to know, appear regularly in the fake New York Times but are overlooked by our real-news supermarket media. Mr. Pecker must be asleep at the switch.
7
The line between Donald Trump and the moneyed interests angling to get next to him is considerably shorter and straighter than we make it out to be. This is because we're used to a system in which people go to great lengths to make that particular line very long and convoluted, so as to discourage people from tracing it.
Trump couldn't care less. Shame, or even a sense of criminal humility, keeping a low profile while being a bad actor, are foreign to his modus operandi. Trump lives large in all his aspects --- he goes big everywhere, from his developments where he stiffs contractors and files multiple bankruptcies, to his fabricated public declarations, to his grift and graft.
We've moved past being stunned by what he does or says, and are now marveling at the audacity with which he does it. This is a man who paid off a porn star and a Playboy model so they'd stay quiet about having sex with him and not disturb his chances of being elected. A massage parlor madam at his Super Bowl party? I'm surprised this even registered on the radar.
10
What exactly is an "opinion columnists" ? Gossip
Is this the state of journalism now ? SMH
1
Let's see -- the Porn Star President, the Playboy Model President, the Massage Parlor Madam President. No wonder Trump and the tabloids sleep together.
Now exactly where do Putin and the GOP fit?
5
So, let's peel this down: Li Yang sold--repeat--sold the massage parlor before--repeat--long before Mr. Kraft got caught with his pants down. The best Ms. Goldberg can offer as evidence of a grand-mal sex/security scandal is Yang owning a "chain of dubious massage parlors." Dubious. Ponder that word.
The rest of the column is a maze of conjecture, guessimates, someone in the security-biz lamenting that just anyone (with bucks) can get into the President's actual, like, home without "vetting." Not that just about every American pol hasn't taken "contributions" from the gullible who wish to spend a few moments in the outer circles of sycophancy. Without vetting.
If there's a scandal here, it's that anyone would fall for Yang's scam. Which, at this point, must include among its victims Ms. Goldberg.
1
I knew we'd be in for a ride when Trump got elected, but the level of vice is beyond my wildest dreams.
I would like to know--exactly what was Cindy Yang doing at Mar-a-Lago? Is there prostitution going on at the president's club and if so, how much is Trump making off of it?
Donald Trump is a prolific and lifelong grifter. A decent person is at a loss when dealing with someone like him. Millions of shell-shocked Americans are watching, frozen in horror, as Trump plies his trade.
8
"But, I just couldn't vote for Hillary...". Well folks, this is what we have. A mafia mob boss grifter in chief with all the bells and whistles.
20
Selling your body is prostitution. Selling your soul is politics.
9
And Trump hasn’t ever gone to one of these massage parlors? Kinda hard to believe he hasn’t.
But geez, he isn’t a black president, so at least he doesn’t hate America and our democracy, like Obama did.
I’m hoping that so many people will go down with the Mueller investigation that we’ll need to build a new jail or two....
6
too much koolaide...He, Trump hates, with a petty cruel hatred, anyone who doesn't let him have his way.
$58,000 seems like money well spent by Ms. Yang. I'm sure she got a whole lot more for making the Don appear at least for a photo-op. It's worth pursuing every avenue of pay-to-play.
1
Yang and the Trumps. Disgusting.
2
What makes this a huge scandal is that this women is wrapped up in human trafficking. This is slavery and illegal immigration wrapped into one. These are very evil people.
12
But.. but...but...Obama wore a khaki suit!
11
Trump and his dirty cronies are as grifty as it goes. The GOP has really outdone itself in soliciting and vetting sleazebag contributors/pornographers to contribute to low-I.Q. high corruption candidates on the take.
5
I think criminalizing sex between consenting adults is stupid and wrong, even if money is involved. But I am very much in favor of cracking down on sex-trafficking. However ...
Is anyone really dim enough to think that law enforcement types in Florida just recently discovered that massage parlor employees in their state have long provided sexual services to customers? Get real. If human trafficking at these places is such a big concern, police and law enforcement types could probably make good use of a site called "rubmaps.com" that took less than ten seconds to find via a google search for "massage parlor reviews."
1
Sounds a lot like a marriage of Clinton's Chinese campaign fund operation, his good times with Epstein and his "goings on" in the oval office with Monica.
Too late for your democratic republic. By now, the only way Trump leaves the White House is in a casket.
2
soon, we hope
6
Maybe the NYT having 137 articles bashing Congressperson Omar and 2 articles about rich white people entangled in an international prostitution ring wasn't quite the right balance.
7
Nobody is harping on any of Mr. Trump's myriad, categorically damning scandals with anything approaching the big mouth that he brought to the racist, lying "birther" campaign and the "crooked Hillary" campaign. The take home here is that TV show and a Twitter account, in the hands of a sleazeball, are the tools to command public attention. Beyond this depraved individual who harms the country, that says a lot about what modern technology has done to the public opinion landscape.
9
I'm not a Trump supporter but will vote for a narcissist, poorly qualified, inept leader like him every time before voting for the likes of Hillary "let's put ballistic missiles on Russia's backyard" Clinton, Kamala "slept her way to San Francisco AG" Harris, Elizabeth "abused affirmative action to get into Harvard" Warren, Joe "such a repulsive creep that no female or child wants to be alone with him" Biden, or Beto "the best thing about me is that I'm bilingual and remind people of Obama" O'Rourke.
You want to get Trump out of the WH in 2020? Fine with me but come up with a candidate that is, at least theoretically, significantly better than him.
Trump Hosts Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov And Ambassador Kislyak At White House
(Photo courtesy of foreign media, US press not informed of meeting)
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/10/527755991/trump-meets-with-russias-lavrov-at-the-white-house-today
4
Imagine the Republican outrage has President Obama ever been photographed with a pimp, much less allowed said pimp to sell access to him.
3
Trump is a traitor. Not a deliberate traitor; more of a convenient idiot type of traitor. He will do anything to increase his wealth, even discuss classified information with foreign adversaries.
He does not belong in the office of the President. He is bad for the United States. He is bad for the world.
He should be sat upon so that he cannot do anymore damage until he is removed from office, either through impeachment or the ballot.
Anyone who registers as a Republican no longer has the right to claim to be a patriot if they support Trump as President. Anyone supporting this traitor should be voted out of office.
11
these revelations are indeed disgusting, but unfortunately 2/3 of the government dont care and the 1/3 that dose can do much about it. in the case of the voters, half of those that do actually vote dont care either. until those numbers change nothing is going to be done about any of this.
The logic that this woman uses goes in circles that not even a spy novels writer would understand.
Starts off complaining the new report on Trump so often, she does this by spending the rest of the article talking about Trump.
Then says on Friday they were at a party cheering on the NE Patriots, but the season is over and the preseason has not begun. So, yea, what?
Then goes off on tangents, the horrible sex slaver traffics sex slaves, because Trump. And she does other businesses, and Trump. And omg, Trump.
At the end is just another rambling column by Michele Goldberg, about Trump.
2
We have a president who trusts his gut over his brain, being used by people who do the exact opposite.
3
MSS is having a field day.
Watching WW2 documentaries that showed Hitler’s ranting, I often wondered how the Germans could have been so besotted with such an obvious lunatic. But one thing I was sure of. it could not happen here.
What a lesson Trump has been! We now see around 35% of Americans swept into the same kind of personality cult, blindly following a ranting lunatic. The Germans loved Hitler because they thought he could bring them world domination and his early military successes made it seem possible.
Similarly, certain American groups think Trump can give them back their eroding power or bring them power they yearn to have, so what other awful things he might do can be excused. Fortunately for us, Trump has no military successes, nor the brains and cunning of Hitler, or we might be in for a much harder time.
What a heinous thing is this urge we humans have to dominate and control others, and so hard to keep under our control.
10
Watching WW2 documentaries that showed Hitler’s ranting, I often wondered how the Germans could have been so besotted with such an obvious lunatic. One thing I was sure of, though, was it could not happen here.
What a lesson Trump has been! We now see around 35% of Americans swept into the same kind of personality cult, blindly following a ranting lunatic. The Germans loved Hitler because they thought he could bring them world domination and his early military successes it seem possible.
Similarly, American Trumpists think he can maintain their eroding power or bring them power they yearn to have. Fortunately for us, Trump has no military successes, nor the brains and cunning of Hitler, or we might be in for a much harder time.
What a heinous thing is this urge we humans have to dominate and control others, and so hard to keep under our control.
1
Trump is the grandson of a brothel owner. What more can you expect from a man with his genes? He saw a woman who was the same and they found a common bond in their dedication to filth and sleaze.
7
I know it is beneath the Times' sense of propriety, but I can't help myself from the analogy:
Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago is to Cindy Yang as "Masseuses" at Orchids of Asia is to Robert Kraft.
2
If Obama had been photographed with this madam, he'd have been impeached or worse, and the Christian radicals who hated him would be seething to this day. But the fact that the so-called Christian right supporters of Trump have no issue that he consorts with a known sex trafficker, and even involves in a dirty, anti-American business with her (arranging foreign businessmen to pay for access to the Trumpolini family at Mar a Lago while the little dictator ignores the very real needs of American citizens and society), shows that they have no morals, no integrity, and are themselves as corrupt as a rotten pile of fish. All for God and Country, of course.
3
i'm still amazed how Trump's enablers don't seem to know that they're going down the toilet with the rest of America.
7
Absolutely! Other shoe will drop...or rotting fish drippings...Corruption like water flows to the lowest place...
2
Just another Tuesday in trumpland.
2
The really interesting part of this salacious story is, just WHY did our lowlife president pick Acosta as his labor secretary??Clearly because trump was epstein's buddy, probably availed himself of some poor,kidnapped minor child's services and rewarded Acosta for getting him and epstein and a whole lotta other lowlifes off.Why hasn't acosta been been subpoenaed???I would also suppose that trump's "modeling"agency was a supplier of many of these underage children.Will this charming tale finally repulse the evangelicals and base[no pun intended]trump so desperately needs???
5
Does Ms Yang own the massage parlor or not? Ms Goldberg writes that under Trump America's secrets are for sale. Does she have proof of this?
This story reminds me of District Attorney Jim Garrison's prosecution of Clay Shaw. Shaw knew David Ferrie. Ferrie knew Lee Harvey Oswald in the Civil Air Parol. Ergo Shaw was a conspirator in the assassination of President Kennedy.
I see nothing here that Robert Mueller or the Southern District of New York could take to court.
Angry white male republicans would be much, much happier if they stopped by their local parlor for a $50 relief. And this country would be better for it.
5
It’s almost INSANE that Republican approval of the nation’s Grifter-in-Chief is so darn high! From inside trading cabinet members, to Secretaries hitchhiking military aircraft to glimpse a total eclipse with their significant others, to bellicose, bigotted anti-immigrant hypocrisy; the administration’s officers has seemingly assumed the manners of its leader. Why aren’t the more scrupulous government insiders and GOP leaders saying “Enough already!” to Trump’s mafia don behaviors, name calling, race baiting, and narcissist child like meglomania?
1
Marla Blarga Lago - just like the antebellum days only with gold lame, golf carts, and plastic surgery, where the nouveau riche friends of Donald Trump buy and sell ...
... people.
4
Whenever someone starts quoting Mother Jones, stop reading.
1
Yeah, but he appoints anti-abortion judges, so it's OK. Of course, if some Asian teenage girl gets pregnant with Robert Kraft's baby, I'm sure they'll make an exception.
3
In America you go to jail for selling your body but you go to Washington for selling your soul.
6
It's another scandal du jour in Trump world. There are just so many that it's mind-boggling. Does anything ever stick to Trump? Some of the transgressions on the Democratic side pale in comparison to what Trump is a party to, and yet they seem to fester for days in the public eye. Is the public just inured to his criminality?
2
Ms. Goldberg is sensationalizing typical pay to play culture and access peddling that exists in Washington. Is this worse than Hillary Clinton when Secretary of State selling government access for contributions to the Clinton Foundation? (we all know why she erased her 3000 emails and destroyed her server). And by the way, I am not a Trump supporter.
2
Please someone tell me that the johns who pay for sex with victims of sex trafficking are, if and when caught, themselves charged with sex-trafficking?
If not, why not? What's the difference between the johns and the people who kidnap/imprison the women? During the 5 minutes or 5 hours or however long it takes these creeps to do their business, isn't the sex-trafficking victim every bit as imprisoned as she is when her shift is over for the day and she returns to her "cell"? These johns pay their money to own a non-free woman for a while. How is that not trafficking, or kidnapping, or some other such major crime?
I sincerely hope that Kraft--and all such evil men (it was apparently obvious that the girls at this "massage parlor" were frightened and malnourished)--will not just be charged with whatever misdemeanor any other john is charged with.
6
MAGA-a-GoGo???
If only.....
Wow!!! We haven’t had so much scandalous sexy fun since the days of JFK, Bobby Baker, The Quorum Club, Ellen Rometsch, Judith Exner, Sam Giancana and the whole boozy, rat-packy, x-rated Camelot after-dark craziness of the early 1960s....except for the fact that back then all the participants were actually young and attractive and not octogenarian tycoons. It was a pretty high bar to beat.
Today the young and attractive are too busy getting involved in boring scandals involving things like elite college acceptances. How the mighty have fallen.
2
The WSJ crowd is frothing at the mouth at all the fake charges the NYT keeps uncovering about Trump. We've truly fallen down the rabbit hole. Hopefully, Kim and Kanye will run for president/vp and slap that boy down.
As usual, the problem is not in the corruption at the top, which should be a matter of criminal investigation and punishment, but the people that support all of this. The fact that this people gets their news from only one source does not justify it.
PS:there is no limit to the hypocrisy: if Obama would have done just one single thing that this guy is doing by the thousands, he would have been crucified and with him the entire black race.
2
Like in the 'porn star campaign violations' it's not the behavior, which seems to be typical of Trump and his friends, that is the most dangerous part of this scandal. You have people illegally funneling money into Trump's campaign and a web of corruption that gets more despicable with every day.
When you have welched on billions of dollars of loans from American based banks, and passed the debt on to the American people, you need to get the money from somewhere. The sex-trade business and money laundering with foreign adversaries seems to work just fine for these people.
Evangelicals is this who you are?
6
My Grandma used to say, "Where there's no sense, there's no feeling." So if this potpourri of sleaze doesn't gain traction with GOP leadership, then I guess whacking them upside the head with the proverbial 2x4 isn't going to accomplish anything, either. I was in grade school during the Nixon era, too young to form an impression independent of my parents. Can someone tell me, was it as ugly as this?
1
You realize that, say, an army sergeant would be in prison for a long time for doing something like this. The 'pubs would have been demanding Obama's immediate impeachment. But here they are, strutting around in their red baseball caps, chanting, "build the wall", "lock her up", and, most damagingly, "fake news". One wonders: what would it take to knock them back into reality?
5
IOKIYAR. IACIYAD.
(It's OK if you're a Republican. It's a crime if you're a Democrat)
The Donald is a Republican. He opposes abortion. He cuts taxes for the super-rich. Therefore, nothing he does is a scandal.
If a Democrat met this woman at a rally, and she was one of 1500 nameless people there he or she shook hands with, FRONT PAGE OF FOX NEWS!
1
To answer the last question, Cindy Yang is.
Every time Trump flies off to Mar-a-Lago, at taxpayers expense, he is promoting his business interests and making money from being president of the United States. Corporations pay millions of dollars over years to have sports stadiums named after them to get the publicity that comes their way. Trump not only gets the publicity free, he forces all of us to pay for it by frequently flying to Florida and to New Jersey, to promote the golf course there.
This is what happens when we have a renegade president who refuses to step away from his businesses upon election. He is using the office given to him to make money for his company. Why are we paying to help Trump make money for himself? Are we idiots?
If Trump wants to fly off to Florida most weekends, he should pay for it himself. This scam should be stopped immediately.
4
When two weeks ago the Florida prostitution topic first came up in the nytimes, I commented - half heartedly kiddong - „mar al lago?“
As we see there is no kidding anymore in Trump age where every bitter joke becomes even more bitter reality.
2
“It’s called pay to play. It’s illegal. I mean it’s illegal.”...Donald J. Trump
The Palm Beach Post's column by satirist Frank Cerabino wrote about this yesterday: https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20190311/cerabino-somethings-wrong-with-picture-at-trumps-mar-a-lago-club
"The truth is that any scoundrel with a load of dirty cash can get a private audience at Mar-a-Lago ... Step aside 'no collusion with Russia.' The new mantra of denial may have to be 'no co-lotion with China'."
His articles are always amusing but the ones about #45 are hilarious. And sadly true.
2
Don’t worry, Donald’s Evangelical supporters will get right on it.
Oh..that’s right...to them Donald Trump IS their god, so anything he does, no matter how sleazy, is A-OK with them.
2
I'm still appalled. Every day I'm aghast. Disheartened. Aggrieved. Insulted. Horrified. Angry. You name it. The problem is we live in a land of double standards. Trump and his ilk get away with pedophilia, sex trafficking, adultery, sexual assault, sexual harassment, money laundering, hiring their children, pardoning criminals, receiving a slap on the wrist for high crimes and misdemeanors, graft, theft, and lying.
But, lord, don't drive black with a broken taillight.
8
What DOES this man have to do to shake up the American people? The Access Hollywood tapes didn't do it. Paying off a porn star didn't do it. Nearly 10,000 provable lies hasn't done it. Cheating on former wives hasn't done it. Evangelicals who were incensed that President Barack Obama wore a TAN SUIT (oh, the HORROR) or that Michelle Obama wore a sleeveless dress (such obscenity!) just pooh-pooh everything this man does. To Trump supporters, anyone who questions him is non-patriotic. The way I was educated, in the 1950s and '60s, patriotic people have not only the right but the responsibility to point our when politicians are acting irresponsibly. Trump's behavior is not just irresponsible; it's reprehensible, and I'm not sure how long it will take our country to heal from what he and his followers have wrought on us. No sense of history, no knowledge of the Constitution, the "my way or the highway" attitude. Why kind of a role model is this? What kind of a future does this portend? I thought, in 1973, that the nation's experience with Nixon was bad. Nixon was like dealing with a minor skirmish in a kindergarten playground compered to Trump.
4
Just a reminder, in the event of websites being taken down (Her Chinese-language website, which appears to have been taken down, said she was hosting a conference at Mar-a-Lago later this month; Trump’s sister was listed as the guest speaker) - always consult the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, at https://archive.org/web/
1
trump is utterly selfish and incompetent. why we don't vote and how this administration is a reality .. is so frustrating and worse. the only solution is 11/3/2020. dems, independents, true conservatives and every and any other variation of citizen must focus on innovating and improving policies - even through all this..ish
That a person such as Ms. Yang is a member of Mar a Lago is no surprise to those of us who have or still do spend time on ‘The Island”, a glance at The Shiny Sheet photo galleries of parties at Mar a Lago will confirm that all types consort at “the not the least bit exclusive” club; I believe the only qualification being that you check for membership doesn’t bounce.This is in direct
contrast to the real Palm Beach social clubs of which there are three, The Everglades Club is the oldest and by far most exclusive followed by The Bath and Tennis Club( B. And T. to the locals) and lastly The Palm Beach Country Club: both The Everglades Club and The B. and T. are largely WASP and the Palm Beach Country Club primarily Jewish, what all three do have in common is, unlike Mar a Lago, money alone wont get you in.
1
Why all the feigned tut-tuttery and ooh la la-ism? Doesn't one of the major Christian denominations function like a massage parlor?
1
This shouldn’t be a big surprise. Trump’s world and of those around him is that of a lowlife mobster. They live a specific lifestyle that is never high class, even when they have lots of money. They don’t go for high end “escorts”, they prefer inexpensive, enslaved prostitutes. This is who many people support as president. Sounds pretty deplorable, doesn’t it?
2
Is there really anyone who doubts that Trump was a client? We already know he pays for sex. $130K here, $150K there. C'mon!
1
Do you remember when Republicans lost their minds over Obama's tan suit? Republican Peter King castigated him on national news for it, calling him unfit for office. Hannity excoriated Obama for using dijon mustard. Sarah Palin took umbrage that a marine held an umbrella for Obama as he gave a press conference with another head of state.
These same people stand quietly by or openly cheer for the amoral, criminal manchild who currently occupies the White House. For shame.
3
If you elect an aging amoral tabloid playboy you get an aging amoral tabloid playboy. Candidate Trump was known to stiff contractors and assault women. He was a proud adulterer. Let's stop pretending we're surprised.
4
Trump hits the trifecta! "a sex scandal, an intelligence scandal and a financial scandal all at once"
And people call him an underachiever. Ok, maybe on foreign and domestic policy, he is an underachiever, but on scandal, he's big league.
Wow.
5
Pimping for the Trump clan and assorted GOP bigwigs isn't as bad as selling the degradation of slaves in Ms. Yang's "spas." The former can walk at any time.
1
Trump has ceased to appall me in the sense that he continues to meet expectations for grift and crassness. Boor is the operative word.
What DOES horrify me are the 40% or so of our citizenry that continue to support a man so obviously sociopathic. The fact that Trump is a pathological liar doesn't seem to matter.
They are wed to the notion that brown people are determined to take something away from white people. They are content as long as Trump appears to be an obstacle to that imagined pursuit.
2
We need some very bright people to sift through this amount of garbage and sewage. If we survive this ethical disaster of a WH we must never forget how bad this has become. Time to make changes in how we elect our leaders?
2
Once again, imagine if Mr. Obama had committed even ½ of 1% of the clearly illegal and immoral action Hair Twitler commits on a daily basis - just imagine the uproar in the press and right wing...why the double standard? Think about this ~ there can be no doubt that the Republican party is corrupt to the core and is leading us down the path to....insert your worst nightmare here_________
1
Donald Trump must drive the US Intelligence community absolutely batty.
2
Trump is the most corrupt president ever. He has no shame, he doesn’t even try to hide it, The irony is he promised to drain the swamp, his supporters still cheer to lock her up but when it comes to him they really don’t care.
We really need a full sweep to the democrats in 2020 and the first thing they should pass is HR 1
2
it just goes on and on and on and on and on and on........infinite
3
Of course Trump is good buddies with convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein and now Robert Kraft, who were both caught in sex trafficking scandals.
We thought porn stars and playboy bunnies were sleazy stories, but Cindy Yang will be a treasure trove of much more sordid escapades involving human trafficking of underage girls.
Trump is in deep trouble.
And when in deep trouble, we can count on Trump to resort to his predictable old trick of creating another national standoff over this favorite subject, the wall.
Bright shiny object over here...
"Again, aliens are invading! Quick build the wall!"
3
President Trump will have the first Presidential library where you must 21 or older to attend. Porn stars, Playboy Playmates and prostitutes. What a legacy.
I'm not jaded, nor surprised, nor outraged any longer as the knowledge that I will be voting against this man and his party, it's not your party any longer Republicans, has provided shelter from the storm. Riding it out until November 2020.
One term.
1
The Victorians had a concept of public morality, and I wish we could bring it back. Donald Trump has lowered the public morality to unimaginable depths. We have a president with absolutely no concept of right or wrong, truth or lie. We desperately need to bring back some integrity to our culture. And yet those talking most about morality are the ones least practicing it--the so-called religious right, embodied by Mike Pence, applauding President Porn Star and all his corrupt practices. Offering hypocrisy when what we need is actual decency.
3
Silvio Berlusconi - Donald Trump - nothing original here.
No number of sleazy revelations will cause Trump’s base or GOP to abandon him. Nor will proof of illegal and/or foreign campaign contributions, obstruction or justice, abuse of power, violations of Emoluments Clause or even conspiring with Russia. Tax evasion, bank fraud, money laundering?.....fugetaboutit....it won’t move the needle. He’s only leaving if we vote him out. Demographics are overwhelming on our side....women, millennials, people of color and rational men who care about this planet and their fellow Americans.....all must get out and vote him and his GOP senatorial sycophants into the trash bin of history where they belong.
4
Yes, that is shocking, even for Trump. What is next for this sleazy guy?
I can hear the howls of outrage if you just substituted Obama's name in place of your national disgrace POTUS'. Of course 44's scandals didn't go beyond wearing mom jeans. Sadly, with 45, this is a mere blip on a very busy radar.
The rotting stench of Trump gets stronger by the day.
2
And yet, as we learned from Nancy Pelosi just yesterday, this man is not worth impeaching.
1
@CV Danes, perhaps she knows he’s on his way out..
So now Trump is responsible for the world's oldest profession? LOL
1
I dont think you read the article. It chonicles even more depravity that circles Trump like buzzards over this rotten administration.
2
A family of crooks. How much was sis being paid for her "speech".
Are the massage parlors linked with Trump’s Beauty’s Pageant paean ? Does the chain include one inside Trump Tower, NYC and DC ? Are there Pop up shops at Trump golf courses called the 19th hole extras? Your hole in one with all the trimmings service?
2
And Trump has the gall to cite human trafficking and "duct-taping" of women as justification for his vaunted national emergency and its remedy of family separations and a southern border wall.
What, DJT, no wall around Mar-a-Lago to catch human trafficker and foreign access peddler Yang?
4
But, but....the Clinton Foundation! See, that foundation might have, well could have, well it’s possible that instead of firmly directing donors to the state department, it might have instead somehow provided access to the Secretary of State who used to be on its board! Such blatant possible corruption! I need my smelling salts!
2
"Under Trump, America’s leadership and its secrets are for sale." Yes, also add to Li Yang Bob McCann, Michel Martelly, Ian Telfer, Rajiv Fernando, Frank Guistra.
1
The reason you (we) are jaded is, as you so aptly pointed out, the mind numbing, never ending parade of scandals, most of which are quite serious, some of which are grave, and for none of which Trump is being held accountable. Personally, I am slowing down in my consumption of news. Nothing changes except the details of the most recent scandal. The worse-than-useless Republican Party stands idly by or, worse, supports the President, or, worse still, helps him commit or cover up his sins. There are no more emails for me to send or phone calls to make. My “representatives” are all Republicans. They, or whatever aides answer their emails, obfuscate and twist and lie in their replies (never mind their daily rituals). It appears that is all they are likely to do as long as Trump remains in office. I’m sick of it and I don’t know what else to do, other than vote Democrat at every opportunity. I will certainly continue to do that! As things are now, I wouldn’t even vote for a Republican who promised to do everything I’d like to see done politically. Not that I’ll hold my right hand on my fanny waiting. I’m too old to learn to do everything left handed.
1
Good grief. At least the author acknowledged her blind idealogical bias. I will never understand how this kind of writing, "opinion" or not, is published. What did this tabloid-style writing contribute to in society? The answer is nothing, expect that it contributes to further motivate liberals to want to self-immolate because of the result of the November 2016 election. Now that it is highly likely that Mueller will report no evidence of "collusion" between the "the Russians" and Trump nearly three years ago, this kind of publication will likely only increase in frequency and depravity. Sad times for consumers of media who would rather read intellectually honest reporting and opinions.
1
Thank God for pics and video!....And you still can't smell the stench?
These black sheep and birds of a feather, lingering around the Pres in such large flocks, must wonder about their standards. .
The only surprising thing here is that Ms. Yang, with her Ying and Yang-ers, doesn't have a franchise Orchids of Asia outlet at Mar-a-Lago...and maybe Trump Tower... where they could work that signature chocolate cake into their offerings.
I’m just waiting for more to be revealed about Trump’s relationship to sex trafficking. How can we forget a president who had rape charges filed against him? I won’t be surprised when it is revealed just how much more sick and twisted this all is.
2
Lets see Trump in his new budget (which is dead at least), puts in even more money for the famous Wall and guts social programs. I wonder how the base keeps buying the bilge and especially now with their puny tax cut gone, economy slowing and the deficit debt skyrocketing who is going to pay. He sees not government, but he now controls the largest business in the world and like a good NYC mob boss it is all his to sell. The man was a coward in the Vietnam War and at least Kim showed him what he really thinks of him in Hanoi - gee what happened to the deal maker. He has been in Putin pocket and it seems to have been over gotten the bank that Wilbur Ross was involved in Malta, you know the one that launders Russian money. There is so much corruption going on who can keep up is right. He rangs on about the Chinese and yet, and yet, is making lots of money from certain elements. Lets be clear this is not just Trump, but his daughter and Jared both with access to secret intelligence information, why should they have any access. Sadly, this is a criminal enterprise which we appear to have no problem allowing it to flourish and grow. Just think if he wins a second term the deal will be complete. It seems to me no law degree, but have been a police officer how is he allowed to get away with this and his crew. Kraft I lived in Boston so his Patriots have become winners, there is more to a society than a stupid football team of millionaires. Next up war with Iran for Bibi. Jim Trautman
3
There is a list a mile long of atrocities, embarrassments, deceits etc by Trump and his cohorts.
And yet what was the big news story two weeks ago? A Minnesota Senator used her comb as a fork. And this week it had been a Minnesota Representative, who is a Muslim of Arab decent who made statements critical of Israel.
1
Thanks Michelle Goldberg for this great piece. Indeed, consider the "epic sleaze." The fact that a "massage parlor," I mean brothel owner is selling access to the President should come as no surprise. Trump himself owned a "modeling agency," through which his former "model," now wife came to the US.
3
Have you ever complained about a president who promised our country that "if you like the health insurance you have, you can keep it." Oh, but he's a "person of color" (or at least, half of him is). So I guess that wouldn't count, would it!
Actually, the numerous panderings of his minions towards people like you added so many requirements (having nothing to do with health or illness, like expensive birth control drugs) that insurance companies had to drop (eliminate) plans that we liked.
If you don't care for Trump, that's fine. Voice your opinion. But since your opinion is trumpeted to the NYT readership as though it had merits, I do wonder why you were so kind to his predecesor, who surely was just as flawed.
1
So, ok, 1.5 TRILLION pay day for the rich and wealthy. Trump's proposed budget, (Mitch's Dream) 1.8 TRILLION cut to Medicare and Medicaid? Unbelievable hardship for people who depend on their healthcare for life, would be a death knoll. Its 5th Ave. and a gun...
1
Outrageous I tell you, outrageous! How could a President step so low as to allow this despicable thing to happen. It hardly raises to the level of murdering a reporter for the Washington Post or torturing a Virginia student (to death).
As Lee Cindy Yang with clients at Orchids, thus DJT with USA, nothing new here, folks.
This story does not end happily.
I'm no libertarian, tho am Kraft's age and so what.
If an ole man is caught in a sex scandal in
which media make tabloid fodder, then
shame on media and hypocritical fools like me
who keep up re such sleaze.
Of course I'm missing the point, while DJT's
voters do not seem to be affected no matter
the particular offense, and I betcha it's
such is life for many/most.
They seemingly write it off just like
everybody else.
But if sex scandals hurt politicians, and they
do, then it is a big deal still for our dear leader.
Clinton and Obama mingled with the Hollywood set. Now that is not exactly the cream of the crop. They are a pretty scruffy and disreputable set. They were just looking for them to donate to their campaigns. President Trump never needed anyone's money and did not have to buy his campaign.
Palm Beach county has been busy with their sex scandals of late and Trump has peripheral associations with both in his close friendships with Kraft and Jeff Epstein. He only hangs with the best kind of people.
2
We love our President.
He is the best ever and he has sacrificed everything because he loves America.
We forgive his coarseness because he is authentic. We forgive his immorality because he is rich. We forgive his bullying because he bullies people we don't like.
He says what we have always thought but were afraid to say out loud. He helps us be ourselves because he is just like us. And we were rich enough we would talk and act just like him.
He is one of us.
Signed: Trump's Core Supporters.
1
Sacrificed America?
1
@Sa Ha
whatever it takes ! ;-)
Sadly, money laundering, human trafficking, corruption, avarice, failure to defend the constitution, or doing Putin's bidding will taint Trump among his base. WHY, because white privilege matters more than doing what's right!
1
So members of his base will go shoot up a pizza parlor where they think Hillary Clinton is keeping enslaved children in the basement as part of a nationwide sex trade based on nothing more than a meme, but credible evidence pointing to an associate of Trump's running massage parlors that are involved in actual sex trafficking of young girls will be brushed aside. Funny, I'm still no closer to understanding how the 'base' thinks .
1
Most important issues related to these events are the sex trafficking and national security. Kraft is the side show.
Has Trump rented out the Lincoln bedroom yet?
1
America. It’s what’s for dinner.
1
The more sordid the the story the more his supporters love him. The sight of him hugging the flag was the most demented action I’ve seen from a President. This is Mr. Playboy - judges condone his paying off his sex partners and his base give a thumbs up. The White House will need fumigation when he leaves.
2
Russian asset, Chinese asset, Donald Trump is about money, his. After surviving porn star hush money and grabbing women because you can, a spa that offers sexual favors just can't find space in a Trump supporter's brain. They've long ago dismissed all his behavior as secondary to their desire to stop non-white immigrants, lower regulations and add conservative judges.
So yeah, this should be a scandal, Chinese government potentially buying influence through this person, but didn't we know this already?
The real issue is how much Americans care, not just about ridding us of Donald Trump but of returning our country to respecting truth and pride and morality. It's never been just him, it's been a downhill slide for a while.
1
It will Ms. Goldberg, it will. Give this developing scandal some time. Who knows if our intelligence agencies have had this international grifting in their sights for some time already, with the assigned Secret Service detail in particular keeping watchful eyes on what dirty business has been going on behind the gilded walls at Mar-a-Lago, a/k/a The Honey Pot. Do we know what the citizen status is of the mysterious Ms. Yang? Is she a U.S. citizen, a dual citizen of this country and China, have temporary protected status, or something else? Everything is game for monitization by our Fake, Corrupt, Criminal President.
3
It's abundantly clear that if Obama, or any other Democratic Party politician, had been photographed with the owner of an illegal brothel involved in human smuggling, the Republican Party would be screaming at the moon for impeachment.
I can never again take seriously Republican claims that a Democrat needs to be censured, punished or impeached for an offense, real or imagined.
2
Media giant CBS’s former CEO, Les Moonves, was forced out amid accusations he harassed a number of women over the course of his career. Does that mean CBS founders cannot be seen in public?
Bill Clinton continued to remain President and the darling of the left after being implicated by many men and after he had sexual relations with a lowly intern in the Oval Office. Trump's transgressions will not come anywhere near the ilk of Clinton and Kennedy.
The woman in the photograph, Li Yang, sold her business in 2013. There was no allegation that there was any illicit activity at that time. She was not involved in any crime then or alleged to have done anything wrong now.
Just like CBS, rotten things happened afterwards. Trump hating needs to have some limits.
1
Mar a Lago is just a fancy massage parlor. One can only hope we see a happy ending to this sordid mess.
1
The so-called president has superficial knowledge of everything legal and amazing depth of illegal acts which produce money for him.
Why is Emolumental - Man not behind bars....?
Because white collar crime always pays ....and pays and pays and pays.
A trillion in cuts to medicare? Who cares? Certainly not Trump's base. They just laugh this off...their buddy is doing great, and it does not matter how he shafts them.
The only way out of this mess is to tell that 35% that they do not represent the values of the strong majority of Americans.
On November 3, 2020, the Trump base will be properly informed.
3
What does this person have to do to be impeached?
2
Ms Goldberg , you have the right and a big voice with you being a writer for the NYT to comment on this topic
I just hope you realize the sword is sharp on both sides and you will be just as vocal and biting WHEN this happens tp people you might even like
The Constitution is dead. Long live the Almighty Dollar. Welcome to the Transactional States of America.
1
Better to have said "tests the limits of the human mind."
That inasmuch as we seem to have enter a media twilight zone where sleaze has achieved a certain modicum of class unheard of before in the land of the free and the home of the of the brave.
Vetting at MarbleLoco is under the table where the money flows and the art of the deal is done over.
This is Glenn Beck's model of a man of stature for our children. Wholesale women trafficked for the good of all macho men who need an outlet for abuse and sexual dominance.
If we could just get an intelligence break on Don's "golden showers" episodes in Russia we would have yet another reason to overlook perverted sexual nonconsensual encounters all bought and paid for by you-know-who and his Russia counterpart. Putin has the goods on our baby boy and does it ever stink. Break out the baby-wipes.
And it would be allright. We titter foolishly over "Tim Apple" while DJT's sewer system runs through our heads without much concern.
Chinese spies in spas? No way; not in the USA.
1
Please check , she may have been supplying girls-for-sex to Mara-Go-Lago too. It won'tr surprise me a bit if trump was one of her clients.
1
Trump is a criminal genius. Lets face it. He's played even those of us New Yorkers and ex-new Yorkers, who known and knew full well that he was and is Al Capone.
Yes my dears, Al Capone is our President duly elected with a little help from Russian crime lords.
And this grifter, this conman, this nightmare is fully backed by a host of very wealthy Americans and some of the very religious. I get why the billionaires back the guy and remain a little more perplexed with the religious folks backing such as obvious sinner.
2
Don’t you just long for the day you can’t even GIVE away access to a Trump?
I just realized that we are all paying hard earned tax dollars to send Trump to a chicken house in the most expensive limousine and finest protection anyone could buy. I bet he laughs at all of us fools daily ;-(
1
What did Trump say on the campaign trail? Not going to discuss foreign policy plans because it is stupid to let the "enemy" know what your strategy is... Trump is so simplistically greedy that foreign countries know exactly how to gain access to his world and because he is the US President, now into the depths of US government and intelligence. Countries like Russia and China have no regards towards human rights or ethics. I suspect those who have money and the means will end up leaving the US - the mess Trump and co is creating will leave the US nothing but a shell.
1
I think it's not necessary to "impute dual loyalty" to Yang to be concerned that someone so friendly with foreign businessmen that she'll help them buy tickets illegally to a Trump fund-raiser and get them into parties at Mar-a-Lago might be willing to help them influence the president. And wouldn't it be appropriate to refer to Yang, not as "the owner of a chain of dubious massage parlors," but as a brothel keeper?
You have to care about our country and others around the world to to be human. Trump and those who work around him have no concern for their actions and consequences. So we should not be surprised at anything they do or do not do. All trump deals are shady and likely illegal. Trump is greedy, selfish and arrogant; the ingredients for a hostile takeover of our country. Mar-a-Lago is, like most of his businesses, a crime front and he wants to make our government in that image. It's Trump real current business; not our government.
1
The only way Trump's base will abandon him is thru a major stock market crash. Corruption breed financial ruin! Those that enrich themselves thru Trump policies better beware of the red tide that is building!!! Even a dog could beat Trump when that happens.
Uh, god, can we get rid of this clown already? The mere mention of Obama in this article gives me pangs of nostalgia. He was far from perfect in my eyes, but at least we didn't have to put up with constant reports of sleaze, corruption and pettiness that follow Trump like a cloud of cheap cologne.
3
A Whopper with cheese cost $4.25 no matter how rich you are.
let them have their prostitutes. But the plans to take away Medicare and Social Security is the real scandal and the spotlight has to be shine on that right now!
3
Epic sleaze and corruption oozes everywhere, and Repulsives avert their eyes to ensure more tax cuts for the wealthy, the decimation of the New Deal safety net, the destruction of the poor, working and middle class, and a hard-right judiciary for decades to come.
2
One clear sign of Trump - and the GOP - ‘s total corruption is how completely inconsistent and untethered to any moral principle they are. pro-Israel and pro-Nazi/anti-Semitic, when convenient ; anti-Arab but pro-Saudi for money and arms sales. Anti-Chinese in trade but pro in political contributions and human trafficking; pro-defense and that wall, while ignoring intelligence warnings on Russia, China and North Korea; accusing the press of fake news when they manufacture lies and conspiracies; pro ‘life’ but anti-mothers, those who give life.
once anti-deficit, now who cares as long as corporations and the wealthy don’t pay taxes, well-connected profit from public funds, while distracting and riling up the people to retain power: the real underlying principle.
3
Women are selling and men are buying. Wow, how and when did this get started?
1
So, Yang owned the Orchids of Asia until she sold it 2013. Five years later the "Spa" is busted for prostitution. Huh? This article buries this fact among its non-stop innuendo and speculation about a madam like Yang "selling access" to Trump to Chinese. Huh?
Give up Michelle. Trump has won and will likely be reelected in 2020 in good part due to the unending slander hurled by you and your colleagues.
1
Is there a scandal that does not involve Donald Trump?
1
I am not sure which pop or literary reference to use that would aptly characterize the depths this president and his enablers have sunk this nation to.
From the day he decended to the basement of his tower to announce his candidacy was similar to entering Dante’s Inferno and Disney’s ‘An American Tale’ (with Fivel searching for his lost and separated family thru the labyrinth of ICE) later in the show.
But after reading this latest C-A-P-E-R at Mar-a-LEGO tied to Cindy Yang’s ‘bidness and with all the other shady international and Gotham City crooks — got my Riddler laugh going,—that 45* has been surrounded with, the memorable cover of Sargent Pepper’s is crying for a re-deux...!
That is quite a cast of characters.
The other angle of this story is the slavery issue. I wonder sexual bondage of people of different races fits right in as well.... Strange the author didn't mention it, however.
Considering that Democrats didn't care much about the financial workings of the Clinton Foundation, Bill Clinton's sexual escapes, or Hilary's "super predator" comment, even this Hilary voter finds this story unimportant.
We get it Ms. Goldberg, Trump hangs with questionable folks, is this news?
Still, the worse thing about Trump is how he had made otherwise intelligent writers turn into redundant bores.
We are not living the accusations past. Trump is President right now and sooner or later that rotting fish head slop will hit you. It trickles down not up.
2
Cindy Yang selling “access to the President!” Horrors! You’d think she invented it. How many big ticket lobbyists making big bucks have done exactly that over the decades!!!
And as for sleazy people hanging around the power centers in Washington (read Congress and the White House), Yang hardly invented that and Trump is the 45th President in a row to be surrounded by it.
To put it succinctly, I think Trump stinks. But stop this piling on of minor issues or else people will be so jaded they’ll also ignore the important transgressions come 2020. Stick to Trumps truly egregious acts. Lord knows there is no shortage of them or else people will stop listening from “overload!”
2
Our sensibilities have hit rock bottom... thank you Mr. Trump. Lu/family from China owns houses of prostitution - she also sells access to President of USA via his party house/country club. He says "all good by me" as long as you visit my club.
Does anyone care anymore?
Grifters gonna grift.
The president is doing the job he was elected for. No reason for outrage
Wouldn't it be a bigger scandal if larger news organizations (say, the New York Times) saw it as such, and devoted more reporting resources/headlines to it?
1
This well-documented article may not touch on the obvious question: Given what has been recited by Ms. Goldberg, how is it that trump was elected? What does it say for the American people who voted for him, and those who continue to support him? What does it say for the “Republican” party (now the trump Party) that they will not stand up to trump? Where in Biblical teachings and scripture of “Evangelicals” is the support for trumps lack of moral character? Are people really THAT stupid? Apparently so.
1
Ms. Goldberg’s report clearly indicates that impeachable goings-on are, in fact, going on!
Barney Freiberg-Dale, Newton, MA
This truly is the most grievous set of examples of "high crimes" we have seen to date from Trump, which is saying a lot given his erratic and corrupt, if not destructively ill-advised behavior.
So, why are Democrats (especially Pelosi) still publicly explaining their reluctance to begin impeachment procedings against the president as a matter of political strategy for 2020?
Isn't treating political advantage as more important than policy considerations their primary allegation against their Republican counterparts?
What ever happened to the Congressional duty to protect Americans from what are no less than crimes at their expense?
We need protection from this fox in our henhouse. Whether or not the Dems continue to investigate whether Trump the fox is actually a fox, both major parties are leaving the henhouse door open. All for the sake of their "political advantage," demonstrating motives and actions no different than those of the president himself.
1
Trafficking poverty-stricken immigrants through the sex trade while selling access to Trump to people she is pushing for Kushner-style golden visa/temporary greencards for those who can pay is just about as spectacular as it gets.
1
How does one feign surprise?
I consider what Goldberg does here to be more like grifty than what our sleazy President has accomplished over the decades. The later is just a developer, a category of capitalist known for dirty self dealing, generically. Trump's proper real estate and business deals are never touched upon, and they surely exist or he wouldn't be absolutely filthy rich and and insider in vast areas of American upper circles for decades.
Goldberg by comparison is supposed to be a ethical torchbearer, a truth telling member of the 4th Estate, upon which our liberty depends.While she may be trying, she may even be sincere, she's an utterly biased gong show host for neoliberal status quo and her employers. Throw in identity politics myopia and a huge set of blinders and there you have Goldberg. Who's a bigger problem, a dishonest temporary politician, or a tenured instructor of Neoliberal propaganda?
2
The Conservatives of America owe Bill Clinton a long and heart felt apology...because apparently a President being involved with a woman who he didn’t have to pay for sex is counter to their family values. Now that they’ve openly declared that absolutely nothing matters they need to apologize to Clinton for pretending that something did matter, and for wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.
4
Our problem is that the depravity on display has very little to do with sex, and everything to do with fleecing the country and leaving it at the mercy of those who are at best serious competitors, and at the worst, would like to execute Khruschev's once idle threat - to be bury us.
to:Marco Rubio; Ron Desantis; Rick Scott. Please investigate Li Yang and her actions at Mar A Lago. She might have committed espionage or influence peddling. Mar A Lago is in Florida; you do have jurisdiction. I am a Florida resident and strongly request you investigate. Ray Sipe
1
It does not surprise that Yang's "businesses" are tied to the Chinese Government. That, again and again, Yang orchestrated "pay for access" into the White House and Mar A Lago does not surprise me, either.
The Chinese Communist Party has endless amounts of guile and patience. All that Trump has is endless amounts of bragging and bluster. Of course (!!) Communist China will infiltrate, and effect "our" Government this way. From a fancy party over here, to a fancy party over there, where (oh, where) is National Security and the FBI on this ??
So, belly up to the Mar A Lago bar, China. Trump will blab (for pay, mind you) all of the State Secrets you'd ever want.
1
It's a big scandal to sell your body. Selling your soul though is business as usual.
2
Yeah, it's sleazy. So what? There are massage parlors like this all over San Francisco. Sometimes a block or so from a police station. You think anyone is complaining? And to shock readers into pearl-clutching, yes, the workers are illegal, and no, they are not being trafficked. They are there for the same reason as students at Berkeley and Stanford - to get U.S. residence. For those without educational achievements or rich families, it gets them into the U.S. and eventually they will find a boyfriend who will marry or at least impregnate them. That meets with the approval of most Times readers, right? Open borders and all that? And of course Chinese nationals give political donations, at all levels. As do dual nationals of many other countries, some in the Middle East. I'm not holding my breath for an investigation of those either.
The people supporting Trump just don't care - that is the message. They care about abortion, guns, getting rid of immigrants and other "culture war" issues. They have already demonstrated that the fact Mr. Trump is a liar, fraud and con man is irrelevant to them. A tape of him at one of these sex shops would probably have zero affect on their support. I am certain at this point that there is essentially no criminal or ethical issue would cause Trump to lose his base support, and more importantly, the support of GOP Senators because they have bet their futures, and their party's at least short term future, on him. Even if Trump is shown to clearly have committed a felony or obstruction of justice, the "base" will either claim it's "fake", or that it doesn't matter because they are getting the other things they want. Trump has damaged this nation for at least a generation.
I am very annoyed at the conflation of the words ‘mistress’ and ‘prostitute’. Why do people not just consult Wikipedia?
According to Wikipedia, “A mistress is a relatively long-term female lover and companion who is not married to her partner, especially when her partner is married to someone else”. For example The Price of Wales was married to Lady Diana, but had a mistress. After the Death of Lady Diana, he married his erstwhile mistress, Camilla P Bowles.
On the other hand Prostitution is defined as, “Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. Prostitution is sometimes described as sexual services, commercial sex or, colloquially, hooking. It is sometimes referred to euphemistically as "the world's oldest profession" in the English-speaking world. Wikipedia
....
English is the language of the Kings & Queens of England; it is the language of the Bard. Please do not debase the English Language by confusing Mistress (Love) for Prostitute (Paid Service)
1
The normalization of the immoral continues apace in our Nation with Mr. Trump, his Administration, and his supporters in the vanguard.
Our new "mos maiorum" that we are gifting to the future consists of graft, lies, deceit, and avarice.
Just another small grinding step in "Making America Grievous Again."
MB
1
The USA are the land of everything for sale.Either you are a buyer or you are for sale.
For the rich Trump/Republicans, it's arrogance and hubris (following Trump's clear example); for the poor, rural, whites (not all bigots), it's anger, frustration, but most of all terrible worry. The scam is perfect and a eerie revenant of the Confederacy. As any snake oil salespersons worth their salt would agree, have the rich target the emotionally distressed poor (especially with distractions), and with that combination comes more riches for the wealthy. The large number of worrying poor will keep believing the opposite of what Republicans intend to do, thinking if they just keep voting for them long enough, things will finally turn around. It's a trick to pursue the horizon across the ocean until all are drowned by the weights of their distractions in the effort. And that interpretation of Trump/Republican successes is being kind!
I completely agree with the commenters who think that Nancy Pelosi should go on Fox News and make her points. She is fearless, smart, and she has the FACTS. Maybe she can turn some of the Trump/Fox base around... ?
I don't know how you my fellow readers feel about Donald Trump, our President, but the depth and breath of this man's depravity is nothing but stunning. He has been able to attract and surround himself with likeminded people from all over the country and from around the world. The "swamp" that he claimed to want to drain has become a cesspool. The sheer number of every day reports about him that sicken the most tough minded of us make one's head spin. How long will the American people put up with him?
2
In my view, there are two notable things about this story. One is, after reams and reams of evidence, the curent occupant of the Office of the President seems to somehow hold immunity from prosecution for activities which would put you or me into Guantanamo for a very long time. The second is the Republican party leaders are willing to roll-over and play dead with their constitutional responsibilities. Party over country. Person over party. Pay to play.
1
Trump never mentions Asians when railing against illegal immigration even though they, along with Indians and Central Americans, make up the largest growing contingent in the U.S.
Citation:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/25/525563818/mexicans-no-longer-make-up-majority-of-immigrants-in-u-s-illegally
"Although Mexicans still make up the largest group of unauthorized immigrants, numbers from Mexico have been on the decline since the Great Recession began in late 2007.
The number of unauthorized immigrants from other countries has been on the rise since the end of the recession, hitting an estimated 5.7 million in 2016. Immigrants from Central America and Asia – largely from India and China — are two of the main drivers of that growth."
3
If trump & co. were not so delinquent in all 'such' respects (i.e., all save those that recognize 'cash-basis opportunities') -- and so, if "'Madam" Yang had been vetted by 'our' first and worst family … I'm sure she would have been 'credentialed' (faster than you can say "Give the Javankas security clearances"?).
2
If there was any doubt regarding the Trump administration or the Republican Party, the answers to most questions are pretty much seen here. The moral and intellectual baseline has been reset at the level generally seen in Central American/Eastern European/African kleptocracies. This can only exist if there is sufficient acquiescence if not direct support & participation in the corruption and stupidity at the core of the political/economic system. This can no longer be corrected by voting the Commander-in-Theif out of office. With apparently 35% of the electorate providing dedicated support for the criminal enterprise that used to function as our federal government, we can look forward to a generation or more operating at the level that has been established over the last 3 years. The personal corruption, intellectual laziness and outright stupidity of the "base" have been baked into our governmental & business institutions for the foreseeable future. Good luck!
7
Liberals and progressives need to learn how to think about these scandals. Would voters (not just working class but middle class and wealthy) and members of the administration and government who still embrace Trump think: "If I had enough money and power, I would do this too. I might like to have sex with and humiliate trafficked people; I could cheat on my taxes; if I exclude women and minorities from opportunities, there will be more for me; I can lie about this and don't care if I get caught but if I do I'll just lie again; I might enjoy humiliating and assaulting others, especially minorities and women; if I steal from someone then I can just sue anyone who tries to call me to account; I wouldn't mind committing treason if it were in my financial or political interest . . ."
The bottom line is that between 30 and 40 percent of Americans are just fine with all of this and more. I don't think more education or a sympathetic conversation with my Trump supporting neighbors and family can fix this. For generations political and social systems provided special status and shielded whites, especially men, from the effects of rule of law. The civil rights era changed some of that and those who were previously protected by corrupt systems have never forgiven the left for taking away those systems of protection. It's why they feel like victims. They think they are the real Americans and the rest of us are illegitimate usurpers.
Many people don't want just laws applied fairly.
15
This is the kind of journalism that we need. Documenting, pointing out what needs to be looked into further.
Every time something like this is dug up and people of the underbelly are finally called into account, we just need to celebrate. Taking down Trump’s friends is an accomplishment. Of course Nancy Pelosi is right saying that it doesn’t make sense to impeach him. So you go after everybody else who has participated in his corrupt practices or any corrupt practices by our government officials. It’s more important to dismantle the network than to think about getting Trump to pay personal consequences. Simply prosecute as many as possible and keep documenting what kinds of people Trump hangs out with, who just happen to be going to jail. The rule of law, investigations by congress and good investigative journalism are the available tools. I’m tired of the useless outrage by fellow liberals. Expose and push for prosecution of every corrupt behavior by government officials and make that the point, over and over again. The fight needs to be against corruption and dangerous security leaks in our government. The mission needs to be a little more expansive and bipartisan than simply getting rid of Trump. Journalism that vigorously fans the flame of liberal outrage in people that are basically “the choir” is a waste of steam when there is more important work to be done. So I’m happy to be reading less of that and reading an article that documents and asks a good question.
4
The press is the friend and ally of the people. Thanks for all you do, Ms. Goldberg.
8
@Nancie, let us hope it is true this time around...last generation election not so much when they bashed Bernie consistently, without giving him fair objective coverage.
1
Of course this SHOULD be a big deal. A sitting president involved with human traffickers and highly suspicious contacts with foreign agents. The problem is that this just reinforces what many people already believe (that he was and is unfit to be President and poses a clear and present national security threat) and will not persuade any of his supporters to change their opinion.
At this point, every person who would/could ever turn on Trump because of his countless flaws and outrageous conduct have already done so. As comments on this column make clear, the MAGAhats who are still left will support him through anything because..well I'm not really sure why (and if they are honest with themselves, I doubt they really know either).
I don't think there is anything you could show Trump supporters at this point that would change their opinion, so the fact remains that the Trump scandal du jour will not change the status quo.
1
Labor Secretary under Trump, Mitch McConnell's wife, Chao has some interesting connections to China and the the President of China through her father.
I generally resist going down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories but I am beginning to think that we are naive dreamers when it comes to China and Russia. Stories like this one are popping up like mushrooms in a dank basement.
Rupert Murdoch's ex, Trump and gang connections to all sorts, allegations, that odd Russian woman hanging out with the NRA. bots that pass as human and more that don't come directly to mind.
We are so punch drunk proud of our America that we can't image anyone coming here who isn't doing so because they want to be another happy American. Maybe we need to grow up realizing that not everyone has our best interests at heart.
Better to trust those who have some sharp criticisms than those that make nice while secretly undercutting the pillars of our institutions.
3
It wouldn't be a big scandal if Alex Azar were still the US Attorney for South Florida.
The FBI should be investigating Li Yang for espionage. That investigation could give Attorney General Barr his first real test.. Does he quash it or do his duty?
3
Calling Ivanka Trump a fashion designer is an offense to people who actually went to school for design and work in the fashion industry.
11
We all know Trump is corrupt. What I don't get is why Americans in general still talk of America as a great democracy. It's not. It's one of the worst. And it's not just Trump. It's been going on for decades .. and more. But when your foreign policy decision-making is being determined by people like Eric Prince.. when Jared Kushner,, unelected, unaccountable and unethical.. is turning Saudi Arabia into a nuclear power for the sake of Israel's Likud party and to bail himself out of debt.. and the president himself is making real estate deals in Russia.. how is this different to a banana republic? Worse, the list goes on and on.. The question I ask my American friends is this.. How did this happen? and, Can we please stop talking about America as if it has anything to offer the rest of the world in terms of democracy? It has nothing to say and nothing to show anyone. .. but still good at bombing people..
6
This can be "a sex scandal, an intelligence scandal and a financial scandal all at once." Such a talented president! He can commit crimes of several different types, all in one fell swoop. No wonder he's so proud of himself.
5
Mr. Kraft should be thinking long and hard about how he ended up at that "spa." Regardless of whether he paid for a massage or other services, his mere presence there would have exposed him to black mail,if the police investigation hadn't exposed him already. Could Yang have been steering high profile customers from Mar a Lago to the spa for that purpose. Why should we believe that she truly sold the club?
13
To read about this, worry about this, comment on this, is good.
To make a difference to yourself and your country, it is better to take action.
The action needed will be varied, choose someplace to start, have courage, and put forth time and efforts in the very mundane task of getting the Dem voters to the polls.
I do not know what will happen without your participation.
I believe, yes, I can only believe at this point, that with the participation of everyone feeling worried and feeling tired of the stress, with the action of people who are not used to talking to other people, or who are afraid of failure and give up, with the involvement of men and women who feel like they cannot do anything, a lot can be accomplished.
When everyone who writes comments saying they are not happy with this administration will put forth time, even a few hours a week, working with local organizers to get out the vote for Dems, you will all at least sleep better knowing your are doing something, instead of waiting for the bad something to happen. And there will be more votes for Dems when the time comes to vote.
There are many opportunities out there. Put yourself in action to get what you say you want. In this case like many others, actions speak louder than words.
12
I thought he was done after Helsinki.
Now he's overdone.
And so is t he GOP.
Both.
Done, and overdone.
16
It's hard for a Rube to understand the behavior of a grifter, even when accompanied by a detailed explanation. Nothing's a surprise to people who know the game. Sadly the johns and marks who have fallen for his pitch are under the ether and can't be awakened. The American public is being played by a pro, The big sleep doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon.
27
@Lawrence Siegel
This man has found employment for over 5 million Americans, especially Latinos and Black workers.
Those people and their friends vote.
Somehow I missed where we were electing a national pastor....
1
@The Observer
The core issues here are the possibilities of foreign influence and Trumps's friendship with an establishment that may have used sex slaves.
The president's morality is of concern to some, also.
@The Observer the news reports indicate that a good portion of the people he has employed are not American citizens.
Mitch McConnell's sister in law sits on the board of the Chinese state run bank. His father in law, rural boy turned Chinese billionaire shipping/financial magnate and philanthropist, advises the biggest Chinese government defense contractor. His wife, Elaine Chao, is US Sec of Transportation. China appears to have had representation in the inner circles of US policy making for decades through the Chao / McConnell connection.
Does anyone believe that Mr Kraft or mega donor Childs were unaware that the spa workers alleged to have serviced them were trafficked sex laborers? That Trump et al would shy away from money laundering, human trafficking, influence peddling, bribes or fraud? There isn't enough gilding or phoney philanthropy to disguise the sleaze at their core.
35
What on Earth (or in space) could be the defining, ultimate, unforgivable, scandalous thing that would swamp this president?
I really can't imagine anything evil enough to move followers of Trump and his debauched minions to leave him. I'm not naive, and can be quite creative and imaginative, but I have yet to figure this out.
If he dropped a bomb somewhere, 42% would say they supported him.
What could possibly scatter his posse? If he rounded up people and shoved them into camps?
14
Sorry Michelle. There is no more room. If the justice department won't charge a sitting president and the Speaker of the House won't pursue impeachment with less than two years of this sociopathic clown in office, the show must go on. My only hope is at the conclusion of the inauguration ceremonies, ushering the age of Trump out of office, there is a line of law enforcement officials waiting with hand cuffs to gives us the best perp walk in history. Until that time, maybe we can be entertained with the arrest of his immediate family on RICO charges.
7
It seems a Trump backing madam was involved in the sting of a Trump backing magnate. Akin to the collaboration of white nationalists to Trump, the collaboration of other sordid Trump factions keep growing. His continued Presidency keeps fueling the nastiest of avenues of depravity.
6
Word is the parlor was financed with the Goldberg Foundation grants for low income and minority women.
Like much of the sex trade, you have to peel back the layers of the onion to find out what's really happening.
3
Another great job, Ms. Goldberg.
10
Did Ms. Goldberg ask the President if he knew she was the previous owner of massage parlors? It is possible that he wasn't aware right? Or do we just go with guilty until proven innocent?
1
@Joe
People with access to the president are ALWAYS vetted. That is until Trump took office.
5
He is already doing that on the border. Then don’t recommend the closing of the investigations.
@Joe Remember when Fox News and all those people shouting "lock her up" at Trump rallies said we can't just go with guilty until proven innocent when it comes to Hillary and Benghazi, other things she is accused of? Yeah, me neither.
Who is keeping track of these funds and if the "President" has a side business, I would hope that he is paying taxes on this revenue. Glad to see that he is getting such personal attention from Ms. Yang.
1
The question I keep asking myself is what sort of behavior would finally cause Trump's supporters to turn on him. The lack of response to the Li Yang story is more evidence that it is going to take something truly spectacular. I've seen writers talking about the "Nixon tapes" as a prototype of an event that turned hard core supporters into advocates of impeachment, but I think we have hard evidence against Trump at least that bad already that has had no effect. Trump's consistent terrible behavior has left many in a morally dumbed down state, but it is also the whole Republican Party since Newt Gingrich that has abandoned once accepted ethical standards. It appears that more or less half the voting public in our country is no longer capable of moral outrage.
17
@rawebb1
It's like football. A player can fumble, earn a foul or otherwise mess up and his fans will always forgive him.
1
@rawebb1, when the evangelicals realize they have had it wrong all along with trump that he is really not a true Christian brother but one who scams the country.
2
@petey tonei ~
As long as trump keeps appointing anti-abortion judges, the evangelicals will support him; his other transgressions don't bother them because they are not true Christians.
1
The only thing that really makes this stand-out more than Trump's other abuses is that Yang might have been involved in the sex work industry, which is being conflated with human trafficking. Everything else about this editorial is par for the course from this corrupt administration.
Of course Trump has been selling access to foreign powers and should be impeached, removed, voted out. I don't see it as being any worse because someone linked to sex work is involved. Way too many times sex work has been referred to as human trafficking so I've become skeptical of that assertion until specific charges are filed.
5
When your pimp holds your passport, that’s human trafficking.
u.s.a. collapses in 10 years. cash holders move to Cayman island.
6
I think the fatigue factor is a direct result of the continuing content of these stories. They're a word salad now and it makes the narratives hard to tell apart. If you put the words "prostitution, espionage, cash, Trump, foreign, and scandal" in a blender, any order of those words could plausibly refer to yet another orange debacle.
5
we have all become numb to the crimes of the Trump Crime Family that was legally elected to run our country. It's now "their" country. Nothing short of a revolution, to remove the Trumps and send their supporters to re-education camps will cure what has happened here. Once there was a place called the United States of America - a bastion of democracy - not perfect, but attempting to be. Those times are over; forever. Thank Trump, and keep the memories alive in your mind - that's the only place they will live.
14
I am spending the months of march and april in Portugal, planning on leaving the US. I am encouraging my college-aged children to move to Europe. Any country in which half the electorate supports a Donald Trump is not a fit place to live. I feel sad and discouraged about what has happened to my country, but I cannot fight a nation bent on its own destruction. The anger, hatred and stupidity has become too much for me.
28
Ah for the good old days!
Oh what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive
Vultures hanging out with other vultures, each lining their own pockets. This is the nature of the Trump administration.
9
“— for example, news that the president overruled his staff to insist on security clearances for his fashion designer daughter and her husband — now take up half a news cycle, at most.“
That they are working with both the Saudis and the Russians should be mentioned every time their security clearances are discussed.
These dots practically connect themselves.
13
Pay to play, no other words for it!
3
@Jacquie In related news the NYTimes reminds its readers to regularly drink water and check that their shoelaces are tied.
Replace the name Trump in this story with Obama, and imagine the reactions.
13
It's not really that far beyond Mar-a-Lago. Georgetown, Grand Cayman, has the grand presence of 47 out of 50 of the world's largest banks. "Non-citizen bank services" can include a multitude of non-disclosures. Any investigation into vital names of officers or information concerning anyone having fiduciary responsibility is strictly prohibited. Your immensely high paid lawyer may have deemed it necessary to get a 50 year exemption into the FUTURE on oversight of transactions due to a few new "hassle laws of 2018." Firstly, I even imagine it possible within hours to attend a party at Mar-a Lago, fly private jet charter to Georgetown, be met by the only operation allowed just one customs agent outside of the main terminal, be move along by private car service, take care of business, and be back at Mar-a Lago by the end of the party! TOUT DE SUITE
3
Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the Clintons sell nights in the Lincoln bedroom to prime supporters?
4
@Tom Booth - Were any of those supporters involved in human trafficking?
3
@Tom Booth. Perhaps, but none of them were agents controlled by Vladimir Putin or Russian Military Intelligence. There remains an important distinction between money in American politics (not good) and Russian money in American politics (treasonous).
3
@Tom Booth They did, and the right howled at how inappropriate it was. I don't believe any of the supporters were from other nations(i could be mistaken) and none of them apparently ran a massage parlor either. It was talked about for years as a major scandal by right -leaning news. Trump doing something eerily similar is barely a story for a few hours is the point the author is making.
3
The top two commenters so far -- based on "Recommend" (over 1,900 and 1,500) -- say the following:
1: "Nothing we say or do or demonstrate or document will convince Trump's loyal followers to abandon him. Quit trying persuade them to leave the dark side. They will not."
2: "Pelosi is correct. Based on the evidence to date and the complete failure of elected Republicans to uphold their oaths to the Constitution, initiating an impeachment process and giving Donald a single point around which to rally is an exercise in futility. Better to investigate and illuminate the many crimes of the corrupt family enterprise, to enlist the AGs of NY and NJ to initiate criminal investigations etc. Death by a thousand cuts."
I'll take #1. Impeach Trump. If the process eventually loses in the Senate, so be it. That will turn no more voters toward Trump than he already has. There is no better way "to investigate and illuminate the many crimes of the corrupt family enterprise" than House and Senate impeachment proceedings; it would put the vile Republicans on record in their support for a criminal.
And that would fire up ME and a whole lot of other voters even more than we already are. Stop this "prevent defense" nonsense which revolves around taking actions out of fear for what the other side might do. As one coach used to say, a "prevent defense" prevents you from winning. Have courage. Go on the offence.
10
In their effort to tear down the New Deal and "dismantle the administrative state", this is the very picture of Government that the GOP has been promoting since Reagan: corrupt, self-dealing, irresponsible, out of control. Also voters so overwhelmed by crisis and scandal, disgust, their votes suppressed. Or so angry they are easily manipulated, but above all- no oxygen to thoughtfully discuss and deliberate on serious issues.
I'm afraid this just serves to reinforce GOP goals to diminished government (taxes) except defense, and the remove regulation and safeguards (except on liberals and minorities).
5
And women
1
The story of "Massage Parlor Owner and Mar-a-Largo" brings back a rather unsettling thought: What Mr. Trump is going to do once he is out of the office? Chances that he could go back to "Trump Organization" is rather slim, as all indications are that, by the time he is no longer president, there will no such organization or company. Furthermore, Trump Organization may no longer will be big enough to accommodate Mr. Trump's huge, presidential caliber, ego.
Based on his narcissistic tendencies, some have suggested that he might form some sort of a cult and become a cult leader. Of course, that suggestion was immediately followed by the criticism that, because of his constant self-aggrandizement, Mr. Trump may not be content with such a position either. And, if he gets into Cult Business, he would be more inclined to go for the position of "The New Prophet" or even "The Lord"!
Now this story hints that Mr. Trump may have other options; options that are potentially much more profitable and much more palatable to his insatiable taste for sexual escapades. Such a business would be attractive to him as it would allow him to be, once again, in touch with many of his old friends and associates, from the time he was running the Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City.
3
I live near a community that supports trump. My DIL's father lives there. He is a trump supporter and frankly it was shocking to hear what he says about trump. Keep in mind that he lives in an 1000 square feet house and drives a ten year old car.
He knew that I am NOT in the trump "cult." He pointed out why trump is great, naming the "tax cut, the economy and the jobs he created, never cheated on Melania, and so on."
Warning - The "cult" is going to come out in droves in 2020.
11
@KLM, let’s hope there is no 2020 for Trump or his family, no more politics for them. They are bad for the country and the globe.
2
This is a scandal only until Fox News figures how to make it not so. Unfortunately, 40% of the population will then call it Fake News and we will continue on. Look at the news clips of T saying he did not say “Tim Apple”. We are well beyond hypocrisy.
13
Vettting for Presidential access? Trump does this; if a check is written the person passes the vetting process. Easy, done!
11
@Robin
No, if a check is CASHED, a person is vetted.
1
When does the nightmare end? I have begun to consider the real possibility that there is no scandal big enough to rattle the Trump base. How is it that he can do ANYTHING and simply get away with it. Where is the moral compass of the Trump base and the GOP at large? Did they lose it somewhere along the way or did they never have it to begin with?
13
The needle on that compass is a dollar sign! Easy it points north always.
1
The vetting process for access to the president probably goes no further than the size of the bank account and how much of it will go to the Trump organization. The price of admission to an event, hotel rooms, restaurants or anything with a Trump label.
5
If people support Trump regardless of what he does, the Democrats need to find out the reason for this support and offer something better but just as viscerally appealing if they want to win in 2020.
3
I certainly hope investigative journalist are digging into this. I believe we have a government in place right now that would sell our nation the highest bidder as long as the money goes into their personal coffers. Just my humble opinion. It sickens me. Media spending too much time on the red herrings put out by Trump and the White House.
5
Will be really discouraging to watch his base not react.
3
Hey as long as unprincipled federal judges with a right wing agenda being confirmed for life tenure by the Senate it’s all good for Trumpo sycophants and benighted supporters.
6
"Now, there’s nothing new about donors paying for photo ops."
It is a nasty and corrupt part of our politics in which donors buy political access, which is what those photo ops are for. They display access. They are used to display power, not as momentoes kept private.
However, I don't like it that they all do it.
I object even more when comment is horrified by the corruption of only the other side, only one side as "grifter" as if they are not all doing the exact same thing.
That selective objection is how they all get away with it.
3
Two thoughts:
1) Trump's behavior should not surprise anybody who has read the NYT and NYP over the past 40 years, or watched, The Apprentice. Nobody should be "shocked,"
2) Your article would be much stronger if you had a more reputable or balanced source than "Mother Jones."
@Liberty Hound
Re 2:
Mother Jones broke the story. They have been taking home a lot of journalism awards for close to two decades now.
8
Hmmm, Ivanka’s clothing line has never been affected by the trade war started by her father, wonder why....
1
Good scoop, Ms. Goldberg. It's like death by a thousand cuts but no one is even bleeding yet.
2
Trump and his clan are breaking off pieces of this country and selling them. Can you hear that silence from McConnell and the Senate repubs? You know--the "patriots" party?
6
Remember when Obama was scolded by the Right for putting his feet on his Oval Office desk? Yeah, good times.
14
@Last Moderate Standing
yes! and wearing a tan suit!
2
Mitch? Mitch? Anyone anyone?
6
Unfortunately, if the President jay walks it will be a scandal. We don't even know what happened in Floriday and it's being called a scandal.
I'm sure when a democrat comes into office in 2021 the media will shut down any talk of scandals.
3
@Julia
Floriday? I'll tell you what happened in Floriday.
A Chinese friend of trump's is running a human sex slave enterprise where women and girls from China have their passports taken away and are forced to have sex with dozens of men. That is not jaywalking FYI.
That is human trafficking. And it is being perpetrated by a friend of trump.
You don’t think there are any scandals?
Not so long ago, the NYT, WAPO, CNN, CBS etc. had the credibility that could finish off a president. Now nobody cares what they say. Their credibility is on a par with Yahoo News. This is the real problem. Not the antics of Trump, but the fact that nobody cares/believes anymore what the media report about it, the sad fact that the fourth estate has surrendered all its credibility, captive to left wing causes, with the exception of the occasional promotion of the Iraq war and Syrian involvement, and other matters dear to the heart of the military-industrial complex. I'm never sure still whether the US media are fascist or communist, or maybe both. Meanwhile I still much enjoy reading the NYT, especially the paper version. So consider this a cry of pain.
2
A lot of people care what they say. Please be careful with your superlatives.
@Skeptissimus looking from the outside it seems the real problem is how remarkably backward and uninformed many Americans are. Millions and millions of suckers.
And he is going to get reelected. Go figure.
1
Ms. Goldberg:
Other than Trump knowing the owner and the left's Trump Derangement Syndrome, what makes this a Trump issue or scandal? Was Trump involved? If not give it up. The left can only cry "Trump" for so long.
3
@James
no we can cry trump forever.
Because he is a criminal.
Maybe you are ok with having a criminal and pathological liar as president.
I am not.
Similarly to Britain/Brexit, the USA is coming apart at the seams; shaking itself to pieces on the world stage.
We've had too much Trump for too long.
Our institutions, too slow to respond.
Our media, too 'fake equivalence' during the '16 campaign.
Our public, too patient and apathetic.
And worst, the GOP has been monumentally malevolent.
Sad.
Even if we are rid of the man tomorrow it will take decades to unwind and repair the damage to the US and the world.
Putin must be air punching every morning when wakes.
Goebbels, in his horrid little private room, must be crying tears of pure joy.
2
One good thing about Trump: he’s put to rest the notion that republicans care about family values, decency, patriotism, national security, fiscal responsibility.....anything other than making a dime and sticking it to the libs. The mask is off and their face is more horrific than anyone ever knew.
9
Its not really surprising that Trump is an acquaintance of Madam Yang. (Dave Barry aside: is that a name for this scandal, or what?). Trump has been a grifter all his life, he no doubt feels pride that people are making money selling access to him... and, as in all things Trump, we must "follow the money". How much of Madam Yang's revenue from selling Trump access to Chinese executives might have 'accidentally' found it's way into Trump's pockets? If Trump wants to consider Mar-a-Lago to be his 'Southern White House', there should be no "club" involved. Trump is guilty, it is just a matter of finding the facts... he's been dirty his entire life. We need to see the tax returns, and I hope Mr. Mueller has already seen them.
2
I have had dealings with the Chinese Association of Science and Technology. They are basically an intel organization. The fact this woman was associated with it is enough of a red flag to launch a full blown investigation.
5
I'm getting dizzy - where is the bottom?
4
Florida aka The Sixth Borough, has to be the shadiest state in the union
@Mixilplix I'm not sure if that's true. Should we ask Roy Moore?
1
Uh, er, round up the usual suspects, he said with a smirk. Mother Jones as the primary source?? Give us all a break...Trump is always going to be a sleaze, but guilt by inuendo for sexual pecadillos will never rise to the level of national security risks.
2
"The poor object to being governed badly, while the rich object to being governed at all."
- G.K. Chesterton
11
"It has the potential to be a sex scandal, an intelligence scandal and a financial scandal all at once." And a sex-trafficking (i.e. sexual slavery) scandal. Is there no bottom to this man and his cronies? And to the immoralities and depravities his moralistic supporters will tolerate?
5
Where does this cesspool bottom out? Is there no end to the sleaze in this administration? We may be becoming jaded, but we need to keep repeating that THIS IS NOT NORMAL. Thank you to the NYT and it’s columnists. Keep on exposing this festering sore to the sunlight.
5
Definition of Kleptocracy: Kleptocracy (from Greek κλέπτης kléptēs, "thief", κλέπτω kléptō, "I steal", and -κρατία -kratía from κράτος krátos, "power, rule") is a government with corrupt leaders (kleptocrats) that use their power to exploit the people and natural resources of their own territory in order to extend their personal wealth and political powers. Typically, this system involves embezzlement of funds at the expense of the wider population.[1][2]
Kleptocracy is different from a plutocracy; A kleptocracy is a government ruled by corrupt politicians who use their political power to receive kickbacks, bribes, and special favors at the expense of the populace. Kleptocrats may use political leverage to pass laws that enrich them or their constituents and they usually circumvent the rule of law.
2
If the suitcase full of money fits? Trump will be wearing it.
1
Trump says he is against human trafficking. And uses this line to persuade people to build a wall on our southern border. But then he takes money from someone who is commonly known to have engaged and profited from human trafficking. I get the feeling he would party with a southern border coyote human trafficking ringleader if the price was right. He is a hypocrite in the first degree.
7
And you know that the republican heads would be exploding if this was happening during a democratic president's term.
6
After reading your article I think that Nancy Pelosi should reconsider her parameters for impeachment.
2
It is a big scandal, except this man pretending to be the President of the United States is helping to cover it up! It is a travesty.
The media has been responsible for blowing up this story into a scandal, one that is not worthy of the attention it's getting.
It's isn't clear why - cable TV news fail to even make it clear that "she reportedly sold it around 2013" and no one reports on who owns the chain of massage parlors now.
Ms. Goldberg identifies Yang as the "Florida businesswoman whose family owns a chain of massage parlors that have gained a reputation for offering sexual services.”
Does she own them now or did she sell them?
"Last month, Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots and a close friend of and donor to Trump, was charged with two counts of soliciting prostitution at a spa Yang founded, Orchids of Asia."
Is there one spa? Or a chain of massage parlors? Did she found them? Does she own them? Did she sell them?
Do your journalism work! How about clarifying the facts instead of creating a scandal?
3
Dear Michelle,
Hate to tell you this, but lobbying is all about purchasing access! You don't really think that all those 'bundled' campaign contribution just happen?
It's true that foreign governments cannot legally give campaign contributions. So, here's what they do. They set up an education foundation that sponsors and educational trip for members of Congress to stay at a very posh resort.
There they are whined and dined and more contributions are bundled. President's don't go on these junkets, because once in office the junkets come to them.
But the money rolls in and with smart lawyers, foreign money finds away around our intentionally very loose campaign laws. And congress makes sure those loopholes stay open.
The fact that amidst some of this political sleaze a little porn and sex trafficking were thrown in, just say the words "Jeffery Epstein".
Now there's a scandal for you. This other stuff is simply business as usual.
2
Let me get this straight: a woman who once owned a string of massage parlors which she sold 6 years ago, (which may now be involved in sex trafficking), who raised money for the Trump Campaign has been to Mara Lago—and this is a scandal? Really? Guilt by association much?
I just find it interesting how the Main Stream Media has remained incurious about the seedy cast of characters surrounding Barack Obama’s political career—or better yet Bill Clinton’s.
This just demonstrates how desperate the media has become—to dirty-up the Trump Administration, by any means possible. It’s all designed to get us to take our eye off the obvious success of Trumps economic policies—the low unemployment, the wage growth, the surging stock market, business optimism, etc.
Democrats and their sidekicks in the media, were not successful in selling the narrative that our buoyant economy was to Obama’s credit. Furthermore, the Deep State coup/Mueller Probe hasn’t done the trick, and their usual class warfare strategy is falling flat.
So now we’re witnessing other tactics—such as weak, salacious linkages to unsavory characters—and a brand new strategy trotted out by The NY Times yesterday; the attempt to convince us that the roaring economy isn’t really doing so well after all.
A note to Liberal Politicians and your media lapdogs; we see through it all. We know what you’re up to, and it’s not working. Bash capitalism to your heart’s content—we know it always works. Always.
6
@Jesse The Conservative
how much did you get back on your tax returns this year?
More than last year?
How much are you paying for health insurance.
Less than last year.?
3
@Jesse The Conservative - No previous President of the United States has risen to this level of corruption. Mr. trump's indiscretions are hurting our country, not just some political party. He may be a traitor, he may be trying to use our resources to enrich his family, all things that no other President or politician has been suspected or accused of.
1
@Carla, I don’t pay taxes. I use Trump’s accountant.
There is nothing else to say about Trump, nothing. He has made a mockery of the Office, sullied our international reputation and created unnecessary carnage (his word) to this country - MAGA, appropriately translated... Misery, Arrogance, Guiltless and Avaracious.
7
Just when one thinks that the bar for competence, integrity, and morality can go no lower for this POTUS, we get another dose of grifting, shady business connections, and immorality. Enough already!
November 2020 can't come soon enough!
3
I am convinced Republicans are cynically daring Dems in the House to begin impeachment proceedings and every scandal that would bring down any other POTUS adds to their ammo. As long as they keep getting their conservative judges approved and restrictive regulations diminished and the core of our democracy hollowed out for their corporate donors they will not make a moral choice to listen to their consciences. By the time Nov. 2020 rolls around they are hoping the vast populace disserved by the liar-in-chief are so disgusted by politics they will tune out the election (and the only chance of American redemption).
Trump has turned scandal and lying into the new norm. What we are witnessing is a real life made for tv faux reality show. It preys on the most gullible and susceptible among us. It preaches fear hatred and loathing of all things not white or extreme right. It has created a tsunami of vindictive haters who relish the idea of getting even with those they perceive as having abandoned them. Unfortunately for them they will wake up one of these days to the reality that they are victims of an even bigger scam aimed at exponentially growing the wealth of those in need of nothing. And to top it off it will have been done at their expense. Ignorance is bliss until it bites you in the rear.
5
Remember all the fuss and outrage when Al Gore had a fundraiser at a Buddhist temple and was accused of taking money from (Chinese) foreigners?
4
Sen Patrick Moynihan used to say that deviancy was defined down when he criticized certain elements of our society. Trump has defined down what it means to be a deviant president.
5
Turns out "Pizza-gate," the completely imaginary Democratic sex-slave operation, is yet another Republican projection of things their own leadership is actually involved in?
6
excellent piece. that over 60 million american voters cast their ballot for this individual should make us reflect. why? are they as shallow and venal as he? as racist? as divisive?
5
It also goes to the Jeffery Epstein case! One of the victims claims she was originally working at Mar lago at 16 when Epstein recruited her to be a masseuse. No state give 16 year olds massue liscences. Did she go to shady Cindy Massage Therapy school.
My cousin regulates and inspects nursing homes in Florida. She says they are so bad, but she has so many Scott and Trump worshipping Republicans on her staff that she can only get them to see through the woods by saying. “ do you want your Grandma treated this way? “ they then get the worst offenders!
4
Low friends in high places. Many ways to meet their "lovers".
3
Didn't Pete Buttigieg say it best when asked which president would be worse; Trump or Pence?
After looking appalled at the idea of either, he said something to this effect: "When did Mike Pence become a cheerleader for a porn star presidency?"
When do commenters like WPLMMT consider the idea of a moral compass? We can debate trade policy, foreign policy, tax policy until the cows come home. Fine.
But there is no debate about the corruption and immorality of Donald Trump. He is an established bigot, misogynist and cheat.
How WPLMMT can travel overseas and even hold his up high while our POTUS acts in a manner that we all teach our children is absolutely wrong, I just don't get.
Somewhere, there is landfill of moral compasses. It is beyond capacity.
4
The authorities need to ask for court orders and get there records. I bet Trump and the whole White House staff are regulars. Very sad the so called christianans evangelicals voted for these bad people.
2
Digging deep for dirt, guess that Mueller thing ain't working out.
Wait sold in 2013?
concept for thriller # 101 from the Trump administration:
"the owner of a chain of dubious massage parlors was brokering foreign access to the president of the United States "
Nah, too unrealistic. Nobody would believe it.
No one is surprised by anything that comes from the most corrupt and dishonest administration in history. Sleazy, grifters, lying and morally and spiritually bankrupt: this is what a trump presidency represents. We all knew it would.
1
Trump has taken America into the Abyss; hate; fear; greed and lust rule. Trump Cult will always stick with the Con Man. Will America survive? Ray Sipe
6
I hope that all the evangelicals who posted pictures of their families on social media with red X’s on their hands supporting the #EndItMovement to fight sex trafficking will speak out equally as publicly against Trump and Kraft and their criminal activities supporting sexual trafficking. Radio silence so far.
4
$42,000? She could have gotten way more out of Trump for a lot less money. Trump swindled some of his Trump University “students” (i.e. “suckers”) out of a few thousand dollars here and a few hundred there. Why would a billionaire stoop so low to rip off some of his his biggest fans for chump change?
1
And this sleaze-ball is still our President because...?
Nancy Pelosi is so wrong. He IS important enough. He has denigrated, demeaned, and destroyed the Office of the Presidency. What precedents is he setting on a daily basis? We’re no better than a banana republic now. He has worn us down, as is his wont. And, I’ll bet he walks away unscathed.
2
Trump completely fooled his naive supporters into believing that he was an outsider and was going to drain the swamp, yet, for anyone that bothered studying his business history, they would have known he spent his entire life in the swamp "up to his neck" and enjoyed every minute of it.
The fact remains that whether you call it jaded or embarrassed, the fact remains that when it comes to the stature of the Office of the President, Trump has set the bar so low that as it stands now, few if any countries can take this administration or even America itself seriously anymore about much of anything and for those that wish favors, they know that this President has a price in which America can now "proudly" qualify for the title of "banana republic".
3
It's cognitive dissonance at its height: the most publicly pious will support the most depraved as long as it gains them access to power (I'm looking at you, Mike Pence).
5
I’m not sure about the value of the news stories about this, much less the value of this editorial. It will change no minds! The evangelicals will continue to insist Trump was anointed by God to be president and the rest of us have long ago run out of outrage about him and his administration. I know, I certainly could not detest him any more than I did yesterday and the days before. To encapsulate Trump and his administration in a word—they are an abomination.
3
I know this is a well-worn response, but please remove Trump's name (and specific references to Mar a Lago - insert Bill Clinton's name, or Obama's - hand it to your conservative friends and family members - then sit back and watch the fireworks.
2
Regardless of this scuttlebutt, I am an ardent supporter of Donald J. Trump, the President of the United States of America. The op-ed indicates Ms. Yang was also associated with the administration of Barrack Hussein Obama. The op-ed postulates that her association with Obama was good, but with Trump it is bad. Perhaps a closer examination of the Obama-Yang association is in order. I support the President. I support Trump. America First! MAGA! Thank you.
1
@Southern Boy, did you read the article? There is nothing in it indicating that the Obama administration associated with Yang. What are you talking about?
@Southern Boy
"Regardless of this scuttlebutt, I am an ardent supporter of Donald J. Trump, the President of the United States of America. The op-ed indicates Ms. Yang was also associated with the administration of Barrack Hussein Obama"
The op-ed made no such mention of any association with the Obama administration.
Since you are a mere “boy” I guess you are to young to appreciate Trump’s broken promise on not cutting Medicare. Broken promise or garden variety Trump lie?
1
When is this Grifter-in-Chief going to Jail? Does law enforcement even matter anymore? Rule of law? Rules no longer apply to our rulers? The USA is becoming a banana republic. Our democracy is dying and those who have the power do anything about it shrink in cowardice. "MAGA" has a new meaning: MAKE AMERICA GUTLESS AGAIN.
3
The political party who cried wolf. You guys have exploded with rage at every development, innocent or not, for the entirety of Trump's presidency. At this point it completely falls on deaf ears - even if you did have something better than Trump being in a selfie with the *former* owner of a massage parlor.
Every single day you folks sit here and stew in your own frustrations, trying to superimpose Trump's face onto your own personal issues. It couldn't be more ridiculous.
1
Note to Robert Kraft.
The massage parlor owner and Trump: definitely not the best a man can get.
2
All of this and hundreds of other scandals and Polesi does not want to impeach. This one scandal would have been enough to impeach Clinton or Obama. We don't have enough votes in the Senate? So what? Impeach the scoundrel anyway. It would look good on him. A badge of honor. He thrives on chaos, they say. Well, wrap chaos around his head until he can't stand it anymore. Barrage him with everything we've got. This fool must have a tipping point, right? Isn't he already listing badly?
2
With the second sentence alone — “...grift so baroque, so galactically expansive...” — Ms. Goldberg nails the mind-boggling incomprehensibility of the era we are currently attempting to stumble through, like a bad dream we hope to awaken from.
2
To wit: four cases witnessed -
1. Two guys set up an org called Dallas Chinese Business Assoc LLC. The Chapter has only those two persons and no activities. However, the Association awards on of the LLC officer an award as the Chinese Dallas Businessman of the Year. He puts this on his list of honors.
2. Chinese home sellers and home buyers make partial payments in cash for real estate deals in Queens NY to lower taxes on profits and real estate fees involved.
3. Chinese outfit employs straw white ethnic buyers on LI to purchase MB GLX 450 SUVs for export to China to deceive local dealers, deplete their inventories for NY customer sales and avoid PRC tariffs/ dealer MSRP.
4. Temporary Green Card holder sets up a fake business with a fake payroll to make it appear they are in US for a legitimate business venture. Real reason is put kids in public school.
1
Not that this matter is for joking, but nonetheless, this indicates that the Chinese government has determined that access to Mr. Trump's head is both through Mr. Trump's wallet and apparently also through the physical nether regions of Mr. Kraft.
More seriously, yes, the level of on-going sleaze, dishonesty, self-aggrandizement and so on from Mr. Trump, from his family and from his coterie is so overwhelming that it is almost impossible to keep up the revelations.
1
The news media should devote much more time to this story. Instead we were given hours & hours of entertainment reporting of RKelly by Gayle King (which is still continuing this week on CBS). Narcissistic reporting of a minor celebrity-we really don’t need to hear his side of the story & Gayle should have placed that interview on Entertainment Tonight. Tabloid journalism while the president of the US has created problem after problem that should not be placed on the news back burner for celebrity news.
3
Orchids of Asia has NOW superseded mere lobbying for the NEW "hands-on" access to the POTUS. "Feel-a-buster" lest Trump's rhythmic log can't climax.
Given the Stormy Daniels affair this seems to be a non-story.
Except rubbing shoulders and granting access to a probable SEX TRAFFICKER of girls and maybe boys!
Anyone remember Charlie Trie? Johnny Chung? Maria Hsia? John Huang? Any of the other Asians fire hosing money into the Democratic party in the Clinton days?
Remember Al Gore's "Ice Tea" defense when he said he couldn't remember being in a meeting where improper fundraising was discussed?
Now THAT was a major scandal. When you can come up with millions of dollars being improperly funneled into party coffers, get back to me.
1
And the swamp gets swampier. At some point, one prays, the alligators will clean up the rot.
1
It is no surprise that Trump and his family is associated with a brothel owner. He is also associated with Jeffrey Epstein. When someone tells you who he is, believe him.
6
And some people will read this and once again shrug their shoulder and say, oh that's just Trump being Trump...no big deal. of course they would have to read this in a closet so their ultra conservative friends didn't know they had read an article from the far right's banned publication list.
1
And President Trump is the only politician who has rubbed elbows with unsavory characters?
Get real. Use your bully pulpit for something constructive.
Newbie Michelle the G is shocked, I say, SHOCKED! thata seventy-year-old East Coast businessman knows someone in the massage parlor business.
It took a new member of the paper staff to pretend this shock because ... well, we all knowthe sorts of off-duty activities men in the news biz have tinkered with over the decades.
This is the latest of a solid 20 to 30 ''We-got-him-THIS-time'' revelations that turned out to be as lame as the political coverage hereabouts.
Sorry, Michelle, there will be another 20 before the re-election next year. None will go anywhere, but methinks the entire push of all this was just to make The Economy President tired of what he's doing.
There is no bottom when it comes to Trump. And it is increasingly depressing that it matters not one bit to 90% of Republicans, in and out of the Congress. If he shot someone on any avenue, they would find a reason to justify it. Now he proposes to slash Medicare, and they will...what?
We should not forget that Mitch McConnell plays a huge part in this unraveling of our republic.
11
Of course this SHOULD be a major deal. Unfortunately, the sheer number of scandals surrounding Trump does make it extremely difficult to keep track of them all. This seems to have the effect that each individual scandal is taken less seriously than it ought to be. And this gets in the way of creating the powerful public consensus necessary to force those in position to take action for his removal from office to actually do so. There are so many things Trump has done which have caused people to say "this should be the end for him". But somehow it never is, due to the craven submission of his enablers in Congress and the devotion of the cult that makes up his "base". It will take something so serious and so undeniable that it cannot be ignored to get past those obstacles.
9
Trump's karma continues to descend even deeper into Mariana Trench territory. If there is a break in the submarine at levels this deep, it implodes as if in a black hole. Trump's submarine has dozens of micro-cracks - and it is very deep. Which fissure will break first? If Trump understood how reliable karma is, he'd be a different person. People who don't study history don't always understand that the one thing we can count on in this world is energy. If you put dark energy into the world, it is guaranteed to come back to you. Trump will be thrice divorced, broke, and out of office, if not in jail (or worse) because he asks for it every day. Don't hold your breath, but the universe has laws, and a poetic set of events will at some point lead to a poetic end. And then, hopefully, the world will have learned more (much more) about how not to be.
14
Living in this country gets more concerning every week. How low can we go before Trump supporters will decide that morality and being law abiding do really matter. How do we break through their wall of heavy denial. I've tried with my friends and family who support Trump and it's like hitting a brick wall. I have tried to listen to them but I have found that they really do not want to listen to anyone who disagrees with them. Something is really very badly wrong here and I fear the worst is yet to come. My greatest fear at this time is that Trump will be reelected and then what?
7
I’ve just met a few Trump supporters who were incredibly smart, kind, huge supporters of arts and education and sensible. But they support him. Why, how and whoa? I just don’t get it.
That being said the man is destroying our nation and perhaps weakening many safeguards around the world- including those related climate dangers and nuclear proliferation.
Let’s get it together and make sure that he is sent packing with both the popular vote AND the electoral college vote. Our future depends on it.
1662
@Fred Lifsitz: Understanding 'the why' is key to a Democratic landslide and mandate in 2020. Here is my simplistic take on the top three visceral reasons people support him based on anecdotal evidence and not in order of importance:
1. Preservation of WASP cultural dominance.
2. Reversal of Roe v Wade.
3. Preservation of Second Amendment to include all firearms.
If each motivation represents roughly 10% of the population, that comprises the 30% base. None of these motivations precludes intelligence, kindness nor supporters of the arts and education. There are a lot of single issue voters.
352
@joeNumber 4. They are and always have been Republicans and will vote for the Republican ticket no matter who is on it.
181
@joe
We need to rid of the Electoral College system. This is more than 200 years after the founding of our nation. We can surely reconfigure the voting system to "one person, one vote". States with smaller and rural population where the economy is small should receive financial help from Federal government, tax money drawn from richer states as California, Washington, Massachusetts, etc. As it is now, our nation is governed by a minority of Republican legislators in the Senate, Trumps enablers, thus Trump's corrupt presidency.
255
The Left still doesn't get it. The only scandal that matters is the one that sways voters. People voted for Trump as the lesser evil--than the decadent Left. He has carte blanche as long as he takes it to the Left. So far he's punching far above his weight, and the Right couldn't be happier. Here is a very simple navigation tool to sift the culture war: for the Right, all talk of morality stops at LGBT. Herein lies the attraction of Putin East of Berlin.
60
@shreir The left wasn't the problem. It was having two major political parties, both to the right of the working majority of this country, that was the problem. The "Left", as you call them, simply abandoned all hope.
16
@shreir So laws and national security don't matter anymore. Gottcha.
64
@I. M. Not at all. Huawei is a perfect example. Trump sees them as an instrument of the Chinese government and an adversary, and rightly so. He sees Yang as an ally.
1
Mitch McConnell doesn’t care yuan bit. He likely receives ChiBucks, too.
3
@Theo D, is it true his father in law got shipping contracts because of Elaine Chao connection?
3
“Even if you’re an avid follower of the news, it’s hard to keep track of Donald Trump’s scandals. The president’s singular governing innovation has been to engage in grift so baroque, so galactically expansive, that trying to comprehend it all at once tests the limit of the human mind. Revelations that would have been shocking in the world we all lived in a few years ago — for example, news that the president overruled his staff to insist on security clearances for his fashion designer daughter and her husband — now take up half a news cycle, at most.”
53 words.
That is how Trump and the fascists get away with it. A lead paragraph wastes 53 words. Dickens and Dostoyevsky, they got paid by the word so ok. For them.
Read Mueller’s team stuff. No 53 words wasted.
Whose side on you on anyway?
Why no sense of urgency?
Get to the point. Time’s a wasting.
3
it's so adorable that a segment of our country still thinks that the biggest threat to our future was Hillary's email server.
one question that remains unanswered in my mind is who is the pimp and who is the john? did trump introduce Li Yang to Kraft or did Kraft introduce her to trump?
12
MAGA=More Audacious Graft Again.
8
Now this is truly an American success story. A rags to riches story. From running a string of sex parlors, oops...sorry...nail salons, to selling access to the most powerful man in the world. Now that's exceptional. Celebrate her living the American dream.
9
@RNS This might be sarcasm, I suppose. Or it might be a straightforward description of the land of the free (registered trademark)
If Kraft is convicted, Trump will just pardon him.
5
@Dave Pardons are only for Federal crimes, but the Palm Beach County Sheriff can possibly be bought. Remember Jeffrey Epstein's cushy accommodations at the Palm Beach County jail. He was allowed to be away from his cell and out of the building for up to 18 hours a day. That ain't jail for most people.
All roads lead to Rome and all sleaze leads to Trump.
11
Another helping of sleaze.
"Please, sir, can I have some more?"
3
Wouldn't you think Goldberg, of all people, would know better than to raise the "dual loyalty" issue, even though she nudges it away? Goose for the gander, madam.
If you support Trump and you're not impacted by his immoral behavior, his silence on racist issues and his adulterous ways, then you've lost your ethical compass.
And while I don't believe you're going to change, I'm saddened by the direction your children may take as they watch your behavior.
One thing Donald has show us is that bad behavior, misogynistic ways, lying for a living, cheating in life and running away from service to your country, is rewarded.
God help America...
8
Does this woman and her family still operate places that sell sexual services? Are the women who provide these services held there against their will, without the wherewithal to leave if they choose.
If so, it is a criminal enterprise, which should be shut down, and its owners arrested and divested of their assets under the RICO statutes.
Pimping and slavery are crimes. This isn't rocket science.
2
This Trump presidency in its grift, sleaze, misogyny, white supremacy, ignorance, rage, violations of every norm so far except shooting someone on 5th Ave., must be a lesson to the voters of the USA. Pay attention to elections at all levels and evaluate the fitness of the person who is running for office, and then vote. As Benjamin Franklin said as he came out of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, we have given you a Republic if you can keep it. So, it is up to us. The next time we are angry at the system, the next time we claim there is no difference between the political parties and that all politicians are the same, think about this horrible example of Trump. We voted for him knowing, deep down, what kind of man he is and was, and in our frustration voted for him anyway. Shame on us. If we do it again, we will deserve the government we get.
4
Under Trump, America’s leadership and its secrets are for sale.
Women are, apparently for sale, too. Or they are being bought off with pay offs.
Of course, Trump is a man who rails about women being trafficked over the border in the trunks of cars with duct tape over their mouths. The way he savors that false anecdote makes you wonder doesn't it? In his wildest dreams . . . .
7
Bang Head Here....... Each day brings another piece of information about the administration and it's Swamp. Each day I think, "well, it can't get any worse" BUT, I am so sadly, tragically mistaken. Yet, nothing is making an impact yet. In politics of "old" Trump and all the others involved in these scandals would have been gone within weeks of the breaking info. Yet , here we are.... 3 1/2 yrs after he began his campaign and 2+ yrs into his term. I truly do despair.
6
@nan, the reason we feel helpless is because our lawmakers (republicans) have sold their souls to an unethical and immoral person who has scammed the country. They won’t turn against him because he is their vote (cash) cow. Eventually it’s gonna bite them where it hurts but then justice moves at molasses speed..and our patience is wearing thin. We don’t have much hope left in our lawmakers because politics is more important to them (both sides) than truth and fairness.
1
As the wreckage of this presidency pile up on an epic scale, will there ever be a reckoning that will restore the office of the presidency to its former self?
6
Wondering if Trump is the person on the "spa" client list who is more famous than Robert Kraft....
3
@MomT Apparently not. it was the head of CitiBank.
Palms are being greased at every level. I have a friend who is an office manager and her assistant is African-American. Trump was coming to town for a rally and the office Trumpite invited the assistant, Kim, to attend the rally with her. Kim declined.
A day later the Trumpite told Kim that she would give her $200 for her participation. Kim again declined.
The next day the offer went to $400. The Trumpite told Kim, "I know that you need the money." Kim told the Trumpite to get lost.
Undeterred the offer went to $600 a day later. Kim indicated that the price of her honor and conscience was more like $1,000,000.
Did that stop the Trumpite? No - the offer topped out at $800 one day before the rally took place with the condition that Kim wear a sweat shirt with the words, "Blacks for Trump". Needless to say, Kim did not attend.
Kim concluded that the Trumpite was getting paid to rope in African-Americans for photo opps and that beyond an $800 ceiling there was no money to be made.
Yes, America now has the finest democracy that money can buy (and has bought). However, this is so over the top that I think we need an updated cinematic sequel (actually a ten part Netflix series called Grifters 2 through 10) starring Angelica Huston (as Ivanka) and John Cusack (as Jared). The rest of the cast (including Trump) could consist of inflatables, marionettes, and/or ventriloquist dolls. That would be more life-like and achieve conservative goals of lowering costs.
7
God forgive us, we are so 'scandal weary', that it is just another drop in the bottomless bucket of Trump's ethical shortcomings. The fact that it may snuggle up to treason should make us pay attention, but, alas, the Kardashians & the Bachelor are more exciting concerns.
2
I so long for normalcy of a full engaged administration.
The normalcy would include:
—Intelligence briefings being studied, as one of the most important daily activities of a President.
—Respect for the oversight role of Congress, and regular respectful weekly meetings in the Oval Office with elected officials of both parties.
—A fully operational State Department, with Ambassador posts filled and functioning.
—Respect for opinions of the Pentagon leadership.
— Judgeships being filled, and dozens and dozens more added to handle would be asylum and immigration requests.
Instead we have a tweetaholic, Fox TV addicted Prez whom I truly believe has a reading disability.
5
I no longer read about or comment about Trump. As I posted earlier, he is just the symptom of a country that’s gone very wrong.
The real problem is the 40 % or so who continue to back him. Another smaller problem are the Dems who blithely say that Trump will never be re-elected, etc. That’s whistling in the graveyard.
6
Perhaps the Dems tag line in 2020 can be "We are worth it." Fits on a hat and is interpretable.
1
It's hard to remember what America was liked before Trump. Not only did he hijack the Republican Party and steal an election with the aid of the Russians, but he has hijacked the American psyche. The coverage of his myriad scandals takes an inordinate amount of mental time and energy to track and dissect — time and space that could be devoted to how his administration is methodically dismantling the framework of our republic. It truly is without precedent. The Li Yang chapter will be fodder for a day or two, until another sleazy scandal surfaces. Had Hillary won we'd be talking about agricultural price supports and education reform. This country has really lost its way under Trump. I hope we can recover. Fingers crossed.
6
I thought the big story these days was the alleged discord in the Democratic Party, not anything Trump’s been up to.
We all have our favorite Donald Trump moments in which he reveals his true self to us.
This one is mine.
'Well, I’ll tell you the funniest is that before a show, I’ll go backstage and everyone’s getting dressed, and everything else, and you know, no men are anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it ... I sort of get away with things like that.'
– Donald Trump, to Howard Stern in 2005
3
America may want to rationalize but the American people voted this man into the highest office in the land.
2
The depth of corruption by this presidency is equal to the width of ignorance by the general public. Yes, it should be a huge scandal that Trump is amassing a fortune at Mar-a-Lago by allowing a sex parlor owner to be a broker selling his name to foreign entities, but I would be surprised if even one in ten Trump supporters have given the matter a single moment of thought.Trump is proof that running the presidency as a cult is more popular with the masses than is being a genuinely good leader.
6
Trump and his low-life sleazoid administration, along with his grifter family and in-laws, keep lowering the bar. They manage - against all odds - to outdo, in gutter behavior, even the fever-pitched, insane accusations about Democrats of Alex Jones, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board.
Is there anybody out there who still clings to the notion that the disgusting behavior of Donald Trump described in the Steele Dossier is out of character for him? Those who do are not the kind of people who ought to be allowed to vote, carry a gun or lecture the rest of us about morality.
4
@RH
"Those who do are not the kind of people who ought to be allowed to vote, carry a gun or lecture the rest of us about morality"
It's amazing that you, and you alone, are the full arbiter of truth and justice in this world and believes only YOU can tell other citizens who has the right to vote, carry a gun and can judge what is moral..
But hey, you want to continue to follow Charles Blow and Tom Steyer..good luck with that..
Your comments are EXACTLY why Trump won in 2016 and will win again in 2020.
Thank you for all of your assistance in helping to re-elect our President
Why oh why oh why do the Republicans continue to support this sleasebag? Pelosi doesn't want to try to impeach because it would be too difficult, not too divisive. Just him being in the White House may be the most divisive thing that ever happened in the US government. This man brings shame to our country.
4
@Ralph, if someone like Lindsay graham has gone totally insane when it comes to his blind defense of Trump, we don’t have much hope for other republicans with even less bandwidth..
1
What astonishes me is that self-styled "Christians" adore Trump despite his obliviousness to anything good in their religion. They worship the Golden Calf coming down the escalator, regardless of anything Jesus admonished them to do.
5
The smarmy, scummy situations are endless in the Trump presidency because Trump's moral compass is more than just broken: It has no true north, because the truth has never meant anything to the man. Doing the wrong thing seems like the right thing to him. Hurt. Break. Destroy. Tear Down. Lie. Cheat. Smile...
2
A scandal? Are you kidding? His popularity with the "deplorables" just went through the roof and Ms. Yang is a shoo-in for Minister of Culture in the next (God forbid) Trump administration.
2
Trump is debasing the Presidency and his supporters are enjoying every minute of it. Like Nero. I wondered how the American Empire was going to end. Now I'm seeing it in real time. Shame!
3
That Cindy Yang, a madame owning "massage" parlors, is a welcome guest at Mar-a-Lago not only takes Trump's sleaze and tawdriness to a new level, it is a sinister sign that our adversary China has easy access to the Oval Office.
Ms. Yang is clearly a threat to national security, and Trump, through his stupidity and total lack of decency, encourages her to take part in inappropriate activities--like committees related to government affairs.
Since the Republican party is determined to appear oblivious to the implications of the vast scope of Trump's debauched life choices, they are the real enemy of the people.
5
Yes, yes you are right. But one question: What's so wrong with sex?
@Antoine - It's not about sex, it's about selling human beings as if they were property and sexually assaulting them.
1
@Antoine Well, it's sex with slaves so there's that....
1
This story is not about an extremely rich man buying sex. It is about women brought or trafficked to this country who did not plan to become sex workers but are forced to because Trump’s good friend took their passports.
This is utterly depraved behavior, but just another day in Trumpland.
The Republicans hang out with and are friends with human traffickers who force women into prostitution.
Yet, we hear not a peep from the so-called Moral Majority. Not even a syllable from the Family Values folks.
The depravity, criminality, and extreme hypocrisy of the Republican Party knows no bounds.
What is worse is that at least 35% of Americans just don’t care.
763
@Liza Unfortunately, there are more than 35%. The polls change weekly and around 40 - 45% republicans support trump. We are now living amongst the racists , wealthy , low information people.
31
@KLM
If I told you "It's raining out!", would you look to check it?
Why? To verify that I represent 100% of those polled?
Come on ....
@Liza And don't forget, they were ready to rush in with guns blazing (literally!) to "rescue" kids supposedly kept in the basement of a pizza parlor that didn't have a basement in a sex ring run by Hillary. Now Trump is actually involved with someone running an actual sex ring and what? Crickets from the right.
32
Most people outside of the US would love to come and live here because of the opportunity to better their lives and the rule of law that make it an even playing field. But SOME of these people who arrive here in the US are the same ones who want to ruin the good stuff in America.
1
How did Yang get a visa and residency? What was her special talent? A wall would not keep her and her ilk out.
6
Let me tell you how jaded we have become. The other day I misread a headline saying Ms. Yang "sold Chinese access" to Trump. I thought it said ACTRESS. I did not fall off my chair.
4
There is no bottom to the depths of depravity in Trumplandia.
This is a man who has zero morality - zero ethics - zero conscience - almost zero intelligence.
We cannot use human Judeo-Christian standards to reconcile his behavior.
This is an empty shell who craves wealth and fame - those are the only two items that move him.
Nancy is correct - he is not worth the effort.
Our best solution is to just stop watching - turn off and try to survive the next 22 months.
1
Every day brings a new Trump scandal that would have brought down any prior president. Now, his followers and GOP congressional enablers yawn. Open corruption? They don’t care. Destroying the Constitution’s separation of powers? They’re not interested. Blatant and repeated obstruction of justice and witness tampering? Not of concern. Repeated evidence of mental impairment? So what?
What is wrong with these people?
3
The USA has lost the moral high ground. There are too many idiotic things to want, constant war even if most Americans don’t fight, too much or not enough money, foul food, sleezy entertainment, badly built homes and degraded infrastructure as well as mind-numbing advertising for a constant political circus. What is still so beautiful is much of the land itself but that will soon go too.
3
Trump has become one of the most corrupt leaders.
2
Correction: Trump has always been one of the most corrupt businessman in America
2
@Susan MURPHY
And you are so sure of this.....how?
If you have proof, please present it. (And by proof, I don't mean hearsay stories in the NYT or on CNN or testimony by a convicted felon, liar and disgruntled former employee)
Oh...but there's investigations into his "wrong doings" so, of course, those investigations are totally correct.
Our President (even prior to the election) has never been arrested or convicted of a crime...the only thing corrupt here is your total buy-in of a liberal press who needs to regain its credibility because they were so embarrassed by their incorrect projections and self-indulged coverage of the 2016 election
Never in my lifetime did I think we would have a President who is more reprehensible than Richard Nixon.
I used to think Nixon had no moral vision, but compared to Trump, Nixon was a complete novice.
Trump's supporters take comfort that he hates the same people they do. And they also take comfort that he says outrageous things about anyone who dares to challenge him.
In everyday life, however, they would not give the time of day to such a soulless, grifting loudmouth self promoter. They wouldn't hire him, sit next to him at a social event, much less leave their female family members alone with him.
3
This should be a big scandal, yes.
It's not treated as such because, unfortunately, most national political reporters are focused far more on "access" to sources than conveying news to readers and viewers.
Then there's the problem of cynicism. How many Americans now expect anything better from the evil man in the White House?
Of course, let's not forget the reality that our legal system is flummoxed by the astonishing arrogance and brazen dishonesty of Mr. Trump. How many Americans genuinely believe that our political system is even capable of functioning properly in the aftermath of the 2016 campaign and the Trump campaign's successful conspiracy with the Russian government to steal the presidency?
Trump will get away with this, as he seemingly has gotten away with every other illegal act he has committed. As the college admission bribery story in today's news shows, money buys you whatever you want in the United States. Even when it's immoral, illegal, crooked, harmful, dangerous, and despicable.
You bought into this man's sick vision of the world, Americans. How many more of these awful stories will we have to endure and, worse, what foul deeds will future presidents do now that it's clear our society doesn't care that they happen?
3
So, big donors have special access to politicians? And some of the donors are sleazy? What a shock!
Trump will continue to say and do whatever he thinks will serve him at any given moment. The idea that this massage parlor family is going to influence policy or raise a national security issue is ridiculous.
Journalists like Ms Goldberg can blame themselves for our “scandal fatigue”.
Even if Trump was removed from office we would still have an incompetent Republican president. Think about it. In historically recent times, the Republicans have given us Richard Nixon, George Bush and Donald Trump as presidents of the United States. The Republican Party should be dissolved by the voters rather than being rewarded.
3
History will need to produce at least one more Robert Mueller to fully know the dimensions of the presidents sleazy life and criminal/unethical practices. What we know at this point is disorienting and certainly dispiriting. How do we ever get this out of our heads? The stain of this presidency is in our bones.
1
Trump would have never been elected and we would have never been in this situation if we had held to higher standards of education.
Purely selfish opportunists are the norm around this fetid cesspool of a 'didn't want to win, but saw it as an opportunity to sell my brand' administration. There's no surprise that a profiteer (using massage parlors as a front to traffic commercial sex workers, who may or may not have been free themselves to choose their work) would be in tight company with this POTUS.
PLEASE, oversight committees and investigators, shed more light on the real dump that is the Executive Branch and let's clean it up and fill it (again) with competent and professional, service-minded people.
1
This is another project of the Republicans to support small businesses.
Nothing to see here. Move on.
And to think they don't even bother with a pizza parlor. They don't have to. Like Tom Friedman said in a recent column - anything goes. Including the country. Never thought it would happen in my lifetime. But it has.
2
I've lost my ability to be shocked by anything Trump does any more. Perhaps that was his plan all along. Not saying I'm not still disgusted, but surprised, no. It's been clear all along that he's in it for himself. He's pretty dumb, but he has to be thinking about what he's going to do when he gets out of office so what better time than now while he has the cover of the office of president to establish those relationships into something he can use after
Please don't drain the swamp!
At least, not too quickly. Otherwise it might only die a slow death, rather than being allowed to fully fester, grow fantastical new molds and fungi and toxic algae blooms, and emit the noxious fumes of end-stage decay.
Plus, think of the narrative possibilities. If the right informant comes forward to pour pestilence into the right ears in Palm Beach, FL, then perhaps Mar-a-Lago can be renamed to "Mar Iago." (O Bill, were you only alive today, to write a play.)
Where does the actual money paid for access to DJT go? In his pocket, which makes sense for a grifter of his ilk, or some magical slush fund? Just one more occurrence in the daily barrage of attacks on normalcy. Or IS this the new normal? It's painfully clear that no one in the Republican party vetted DJT in any meaningful way.
1
The most disturbing part of this column is it’s first paragraph. The mountain of sleaze and corruption that spreads from trump like a cancer into American society on almost an hourly basis will maintain its effect on us long after this contemptible, pathetic excuse for a man has left the scene. It’s stunning to realize that he’s crossed the threshold (many times!) for what, under any other past president, would be solid grounds for impeachment, and yet here we are, still waiting for a “smoking gun, solid evidence” to begin the process.
Harder to wrap one’s head around than the totality of trump’s transgressions is the fact that a significant minority of voters in this country think he’s doing just fine. His moral, emotional and intellectual unfitness for the office makes no difference to them. Nourished daily by trump tv and right-wing radio blowhards, they’ve hunkered down for the long war. It’s become trench warfare. One battle was won last November. Let’s work hard to win another in 2020.
4
As there are more an more empty chairs in Trump-world, there will be no telling who will occupy them.
Another one of those immigrants "who rape women". Difference is this one is trump's buddies and not some poor mother with children to feed. One actually does abuse women; the other trying to make life better for the "women and men" in her life.
During Bill Clinton's term, I still remember a Chinese business man saying that the White House is like a subway - you pay your money and in you go. Everything is for sale in DC.
Michelle Goldberg is more than just a pundit. She does the research and reports news. As Harry Truman said, "The only thing new in this world is the history you don't yet know."
The truth of Trump is to be found in the past. I believe that we will eventually see him as a human trafficker, dealing in girls and women through his modeling agency and beauty pageants. More commonly, the Trump Organization traffics in undocumented workers for its hotels and resorts. Among powerful men, women double as a form of currency and a tool of blackmail. Mobster Sam Giancanna compromised and communicated with President Kennedy through Judith Campbell Exner, their shared playmate.
Why would Trump be such close friends with human traffickers such as the woman in this article, Jeffrey Epstein and Robert Kraft? Why would he engage in sexual liaisons with porn stars and Playboy playmates? Why would he align himself with the blackmailers at The National Enquirer? I believe that it is a major component of the "Art of the Deal," the key to gaining an advantage over your opponent.
As many comments say, we have a president (so-called, not legitimately elected) that is an ignorant, petulant corrupt monster whose world begins and ends with himself. However, due to state run propaganda (fox TV) and many years of hypocritical hate radio, a sizable cult has formed that will need extensive deprogramming. There is always hope - there must be - but even for this optimist, it is hard to see how we move beyond the damage being done by this criminal cabal. I knew as soon as "he" was set in place that normalization would be inevitable and have dire effects. And that is exactly where we are.
2
Do voters care about this kind of corruption? Apparently the answer is no for a large section of voters. Few voters No believes that DJT is legit. But he’s tapped in to Americans fear that our country will be overrun by illegal immigrates. It’s a math problem. Democrats to address the problem.
...And yet, the Christian right will care about Trump's Supreme Court appointments, and applaud Trump signing bibles, but shrug off his utter immorality.
2
This is the question I would put to people who still believe in Trump: Why does he surround himself with such low class people?
1
President Trump is like a prisoner who got his jailers so drunk that they can no longer guard him. So he calmly takes the keys from one of them and frees himself.
Congress has overdosed so much on Trump's bad behavior that they are rendered ineffective when it comes to impeachment. Even the Democrats are drunk on the Trump liquor that Nancy Pelosi is saying that impeaching Trump is too divisive. Since when is that a reason for not doing what is right.
History will not judge Congress lightly when it comes to inaction on impeaching Donald Trump. The weakness and soft underbelly of Democrats continue to show. Can you imagine a universe where Republicans would allow President Obama to get away with the behavior that Trump is known for? No way! I continue to pray for a Congress with a backbone.
1
The only ones who don't care are Republican senators.
1
Thank you Ms. Goldberg for laying this out so clearly and trying to keep the atrocious behavior of this administration in perspective and in bringing it to the collective America consciousness. We are dealing with a government that caters to the privileged white male society for whom the laws don't apply and who is encouraged to (literally) grab whatever they want. Maybe that's what the MAGA "G" really stands for.
1
Baroque? Gothic, maybe!
Something needs to be fixed if a wannabe dictator can do as he pleases without any concern of repercussions whatsoever.
1
I find it nearly impossible to comment on Trump and not run afoul of the "civility" required by the moderators. Suffice it to say that my gag reflex is triggered at the mere sight or sound of him.
1
I would like to know the source of this Chinese immigrant's money. What kind of visa did she use to come to America. Is she connected to criminals or government back in China. I am Chinese by ethnicity, our history in America is long and full of struggles. We value education and hardwork to get ahead. To this day many new Chinese immigrants become successful through higher education. This woman's. background is suspicious. My person opinion is that she should be expelled after being investigated by FBI.
2
People get upset and shocked at Trump. They do not understand he is a real prototypical american. Non-white people see him as a poster boy for the country they live in. White people see him a "one of us." As it has been forever the political divides in america are not Republican vs Democrat. It is white vs non-white. Whites always win.
As disgusting as this is...the rot goes much deeper...I think there was a story today that Jeb Bush had a super pac which was found to have taken very large donations from Mainland Chinese donors...the whole campaign finance dependence on lots of unregulated money is contaminated. We need another special prosecutor to look into foreign donations (washed of course) in American political contests.
1
I'm sure I'm not alone in my exhaustion of Trump. In any other administration this would be top news now it barely gets a mention.I have my doubts we will ever recover from the Grifter in The White House.
1
Perhaps this is because, in addition to Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots and "close friend and donor" to Donald Trump, there are a lot more of Trump's inner circle who were customers of the Miami Madam. It is not unlikely that The Donald, who spends so much time in Miami & has a predilection for "women on the wild side" has also made a few trips to Li Yang's dens of young sex-trafficked prostitutes. For a man who would consort with a porn star when his new son was less than a year old & who has bragged to Howard Stern that the nicest advantage of owning a teen-age beauty pageant was that he could walk in unannounced to the girls' (some as young as 15) dressing room & catch them naked or partially clothed, this is not a stretch.
Nancy Pelosi is a member of the old-school Democrats that the newer generation and the great majority of the base in general is determined to purge. Remember when she first became the Speaker of the House in 2006. Her first comments were to reassure that she would not use her powers to investigate George W. Bush's misdeeds & war crimes, nor would she use the "power of the purse" against him. On her first day, she gave up the only two powers Congress has to enforce their oversight role against the Executive Branch & a president & co-president who were grossly exceeding their Constitutional powers. She may be a brilliant political tactician, but, then, so is Mitch McConnell, & that doesn't make him a progressive.
1
Virtually anybody with money or control of media can get access to Trump, so long as they play the game by making him feel important and powerful. You know, like operatives for foreign governments who understand his psychological profile.
In fairness, Michelle’s column contains a lot of innuendo but few hard facts. But how clandestine and spy-like the story could be: Chinese operative founds chain of massage parlors in the US; entraps rich men through sex with young Chinese women; blackmails them to get use of their contacts; and uses their contacts and the money she makes from the massage parlors to join a club to get her close to a president, who is known for doing things for people who financially support him. Next thing you know, for unknown reasons he’s walking away from TPP, abandoning military bases in Japan and pulling out of NATO, without apparent rhyme or reason.
Far fetched? About as far-fetched as Trump being elected in the first place.
2
Maybe we should just start a "go fund me" campaign for Trump, with the condition that he must resign in order to get paid out of the fund. If we raised enough, maybe we could get him to resign. As it is, he has his own "fund" going, sapping and skimming money from international bad guys and American wing nuts, all still coming out of our pockets. On second thought, I doubt if we could raise enough to compete with his criminality.
If we keep letting Trump get away with everything, what can we expect in the future? All presidents being grifters, using the office to make money? All presidents using mob tactics and mob language and inviting known mobsters to their New Years parties? All presidents filling their staffs with family members who know nothing about diplomacy, history, or government? All presidents saying they "fell in love" with corrupt dictators?
Trump's presidency is a slippery slope into a banana republic.
2
Now that abnormal has become the new normal, let's just hope and pray that a mere 6 years from now we won't have to look back and say, 'Those were the good old days.' Our precious democracy
has become an entrenched kakistocracy. Nothing more, nothing less.
Vote.
Morals should Matter. Trump has none.
1
I immediately wondered which of the sons is on the client list. Nothing is surprising about these people any longer.
1
It’s hard to believe that we are still amazed when we find men, or women, paying for sex.
This is, as they say, the oldest profession in the world. attempts to stop or regulate human vice have always failed miserably from the beginning of time, yet we continue (and fail).
As long as there are people willing to trade money for sex, you’re going to have this business, it’s not going away, next month it’ll be someone else in a different venue, yawn.......
1
Look, it can't be all that big a deal, or Nancy Pelosi wouldn't have taken impeachment off the table. Right?
1
Please tell me someone—congress or an attorney general—is investigating this.
Mitch McConnell, GOP Master of Ceremonies, has delivered the goods.
The horrible truth, for what used to be a country at least grasping for some measure of justice and fair play, is now - due to large numbers of its citizens corrupted by eight years of a party sharpening its knives to go after a decent black man in the White House - a country identified by the likes of Trump, Manafort, Stone and soon a stable of others who can depend on the courts of Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Ellis to let them off easy when - and if - they ever get nabbed.
1
When the Robert Kraft indictment story first broke I postulated that Kraft went to this specific day spa business from word of mouth about a specific girl who was working there and targeted and/or a belief from peers in the reliability of security from ownership. Persons with the assets and risk avoidance of Robert Kraft do not just amble into any strip center sex business without some level of due diligence. Still, what Kraft did was really stupid. Persons with ability to pay and intent have much better and trustworthy outcall escort services around the country which provide supply for high demand. Again, what Kraft did was really stupid and reckless. Next comes the Cindy Yang story- told you so. Does anyone think she sold her day spa chain to just any buyer? Perhaps, but probably not. The most disgusting outcome from this indictment is Robert Kraft will work through surrogates to deny, defect and aggressively use case law and media to fight the indictment. He will make donations to charitable causes to enhance and purchase goodwill. But cameras do not lie. Do not blame the Chinese. Russian, Asian, Pinoy, Japanese and other rackets try to move in and gain influence on US turf daily. Those persons do not reflect on the vast majority of good people in those countries. Buying and silencing women is one reason (just one) Trump has no creed with international stakeholders. To prove that wrong he should open a casino in Vegas and try to enlist players. He won't, he knows.
128
@Greg, last we heard Israel is still going to award Robert Kraft their $1 million Genesis Prize.
1
The question to ask is not why she was there! It could very well be that, from her perspective, she was simply doing some "marketing"! If you have a product to sell, it is natural to go where your existing and/or future customers circulate.
But there are other interesting questions to ask. A rather obvious question is how has she managed to get on the list of invitees to Mar-a-Lago? To be invited there, first someone needs to know her and that someone must have cleared her with those in charge of security at Mara-a-Lago.
Another tantalizing question concerns the circle of individuals who are both customers at Cindy Yang's establishment and also among regulars at Mar-a-Lago. Would that include people who are in charge of security? Could individuals close to Mr. Trump be frequenting her "Orchids' of Asia" place?
And, of course, the most loaded question is whether Ms. Yang has any connection with the Chinese security and espionage organisations. A Chinese friend tells me that her membership in the "Chinese Association of Science and Technology" is highly suspect. Apparently, that membership is used for Chinese security people to travel abroad under the pretext of attending scientific conferences.
Wouldn't that be interesting to know if she was among the guests at Mar-a-Lago when Mr. Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, was visiting Mr. Trump there?
1
You’re right, this should be a major scandal. Yet there are more journalists on Twitter having a laugh about “Tim Apple” than following this story. Enough said.
330
@Vin The story about "Tim Apple", if there is one, is that the president cannot admit to making the smallest possible mistake.
The upshot is that if Trump can't even admit to making a slip of the tongue, how would anyone expect him to correct his behavior if, say, a donor and sex-criminal was allowing extra-national rich people to engage in legalized bribery?
25
@Vin The reason the "Tim Apple" story is still going around is because Trump won't let it die. It was reported once last week (along with his "Lockheed" gaff) and it ended. Trump brought it up again during his speech at a donor event this past weekend by lying and telling his audience that he really said "Tom Cook Apple" ----which of course was a lie. Then he wrote a tweet about it yesterday. He can't stand it when the press catches him making one of his usual and frequent laughable misstatements. Its not the press who's obsessed about it ---- it's the moron-in-chief who can't let it go because everyone is laughing at him!
13
Each day I waken in the stark knowledge that our popularly un-elected American President is a functionally damaged child in a suit, grinning to the cameras in a practiced smile of assumed importance and oily self-satisfaction.
How do those around him, his willingly blinded enablers, a formerly Republican elite, continue to abide the obvious, repeated travesty he presents daily, the startling risk that his distorted mind and twisted will visit upon our America and the outraged political electorate? Can it be that there is a fundamental incapacity to imagine that we are not taken in, we are not blinded by the light, that we are not believers? Where are the not-so-silent the voices of thought, of history, of reason and analysis, to call this enduring aberration to account for the abuse he now inflicts upon us all?
I feel shame and a new form of pity for the people claiming him as their spokesman and leader, they reveal the immutable fact of this simplistic quid pro quo: “If we put up with him for this while, he will subdue the forces of democratic equality and limit the very fact of the People as the only legitimate and constitutional rulers of their own government. We will win this historic battle for as long as possible.”
To the hopeful future now waiting for a return of useful sense and human sensibility, to irreducible fact and to open understanding, we prepare for a procedural battle surely to come. Autocrats never leave freely. Respect the office of president and act.
5
Sensory overload on the part of the electorate has rendered him immune to any kind of damage at all. That is the only reason I can think of.
... and as to his claim that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, well, I'm beginning to believe he'd survive that too.
If the county, city, and/or the state of Florida knew this information about the parlor, why didn't they close it up? If the police were video filming the "johns" was it out side of the parlor or in and if so, did the parlor give permission to do filming in the parlor? There are lots of questions here regarding of various government officials and I'm sure that Kraft has the money to buy the best lawyers as he goes to court, if in fact he does.
1
Why would anyone have to be vetted who has entry to Mar-a-Lago? There is no connection to the White House and as long as the person can afford to attend it should be their right. President Trump has been an owner long before he became president. If I wanted to go to Mar-a-Lago I should be able to go. Unfortunately, I do not have the kind of wealth that gives me that privilege otherwise I would visit.
@WPLMMT
The owner off a brothel, oops, "massage parlor" that has been linked to a major sex trafficking operation was partying with the current odious President of the United States and donated to his campaign and PAC. It's all right there in the article. If you had bothered to read it, you would have read why this is a problem. Those of us who are paying attention and care about corruption, national security, accountability and the integrity of the Office of the Presidency care about this kind of stuff.
3
“No connection to the White House”..... Michael Flynn, is this you?....
Maybe it’s not a pee tape he’s worried about after all.
I've struggled with the "impeach" or "wait and vote" dilemma, as I'm seeing others commenting on it have, as well. I see the political sense in defeating him at the ballot box to avoid mobilizing those that may be on the fence with him. But I also believe we are a nation of laws and he should be held to account politics be damned.
The fact is, I believe, that the Mueller Report and other investigations have taken so long to materialize, that there isn't enough time in this term to impeach him before the next election.
It seems the best course of action is to let the election play out, and, if by some wretched miracle, he wins again, all the ammunition is in place to begin the impeachment process before the second term has a chance to start.
For the sake of the country, I hope we can close the door on this sad chapter of American politics without having to tear us apart further with an impeachment trial.
2
Amazing. I wish there were something I could do, but there isn't. I can only hope that those with some power to get things done will correct the problem of this astonishing, outrageous, "creature" that sits atop our government.
1
I agree that we have scandal fatigue. This should be a huge scandal, with ethical and legal consequences. With this bunch it's Tuesday. I simply can't fathom how we got to this place so quickly, that absolutely anything goes. Investigative reporters spend hundreds of hours turning over rocks and unearthing mind boggling levels of greed and graft. And there's a collective shrug. I have to think that political science classes will study this for years.
4
@jgrh Rest assured that if this were Obama, republicans would be apoplectic.
1
I've often heard or read that Trump supporters essentially wanted to burn the house down. And just when you think you've seen it all the smoke gets thicker.
Are they (we) winning yet?
5
The best line in this piece is “who the hell is vetting people that are at Mar-a-lago?” This is most troublesome. Just one more thing that needs to be investigated in this administration. There are too many opportunities for this president to be compromised. He doesn’t care but somebody in the national security field sure ought to care.
This is a creepy sleazy story and I sure hope Trump is not entangled in this seedy web although he seems to attract sleaze.
4
Sorry, he’s the spider.......
This country is screwed. The fact that there’s a person this corrupt and demonstrably bad in the White House shows how beyond damaged and corrupt the system already is. It’s only going to get worse unless dramatic change is made. When the infrastructure supports, or has no recourse for, this level of awful, there’s not a lot of hope for the future.
9
Trump and the people who love him and elected him have besmirched the national identity of all Americans. My only hope is that Canada will allow Americans to apply for asylum if Trump is re-elected next year. I am not rich enough to buy permanent residency there as it is now.
6
I remember during the presidential campaign of 2016 then candidate Trump said that a Hilary Clinton presidency will have so many scandals that people would have a hard time keeping up with any of them or words to that effect.
Since then we have come to realize that President Trump is the greatest psychological projectionist of all time. What he said back them was an actual description of his own presidency. He was projecting onto Hilary Clinton what his own presidency would look like.
President Trump's scandals is the gift that keeps on giving. There appears to be no end in sight as long as he continues to squat in the oval office. It is my sincere wish and hope that he is a one term president so that we as a nation can wake up from the daily nightmare that is the Trump administration.
13
A legal framework must be installed by the 2020 Democrat majority congress to prevent anyone remotely resembling the current president from ever being elected again. One obvious criterion that comes to mind is having served as a state governor or member of congress.
4
@AH We don't have to rule out non-politicians. It would go a long way just to require candidates to reveal their tax returns. After that, make them put any businesses or investments into a blind trust (not just a mildly view-obstructed one).
1
It's articles such as this that makes me wonder why Speaker Pelosi feels that the House should not go forward with impeachment proceedings. How much more blatant can Trump's actions be before someone does something about this man? He's unfit for office, he's committed criminal acts both before and after he's been elected. When is enough going to be enough? I understand that Speaker Pelosi is concerned that the impeachment process may empower Trump somehow, but the Democratic party must make a stand that the actions of this president are unacceptable and if the Republicans cannot get behind the impeachment process then they will put their names on enabling this poor excuse for a human being let alone president of the US to remain in power.
6
There’s a particular reason why Pelosi is saying no to impeachment: too many undecided voters would be turned off. It’s all political strategy. Yes, this is the strangest of nations. We can only hope that Trump, and his family and enablers, will be convicted of a veritable boatload of crimes after he loses in 2020.
3
The story is indeed a scandal however the sanctimonious pearl clutching about the sex industry must stop. This does not add credence to the authors point. If anything, the fact that the person selling access to the Trump machine works in the sex industry is really quite far beside the central point that somebody is selling foreign business persons access to the Trump machine at all. The real story here or should not be ignored yet is neither helped nor intensified by the sensationalism of gratuitous moralizing. If anything this diverts critical focus.
1
Excellent piece, it's the first I've heard of this connection.
NYT, please dedicate more staff and better coverage to this issue.
3
Of course this is a huge scandal.
Pick a scandal, any scandal or corrupt action of the Trump administration. When you have chosen your favorite appalling action of this administration, devote as much time and press coverage in print and on television as was dedicated to Hillary's emails.
That is how you finally make a dent in some of the faithful Trump voters. Trump repeats his lies daily and it works he is believed. Hillary was hit hard on the emails and it worked she lost voters and we got Trump.
6
Under Trump, America’s leadership and its secrets are for sale. Maybe this is a stretch. I do not think Trump has taken to selling the "secrets" of the United States to the highest bidder. He honestly does have more money that anyone could ever spend in many lifetimes. He is not as rich as he pretends to be, but I highly doubt that he is selling "secrets" for cash. This is sensationalizing the story. Some sleazy massage parlor woman is trying to sell access to Trump. That is the story. Not all the reset. Could have saved some time for everyone.
This is indeed a transgression that in normal times would be a huge scandal, and be the source of investigations and some heads would roll.
The proper agency to investigate any wrong doing is the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of Florida. Unfortunately, the U.S. Attorney a Trump loyalist, will not do the right thing.
2
I think there is overt hubris on the part of Trump, Kraft and people like them. They know they can get away with it, money buys legal freedom, so they just do whatever they want. It's gross. The larger point: our justice system is corrupt when people with means can get away with crime. They almost seem to be flaunting their power: Come at me if you can, but you will lose. Money is their morality: the more you have the more right you are.
3
Trump is running a business based on the model the mobs used years ago, unfortunately he is damaging the American people and our country.
4
Sex trafficking seems to pander mostly to men. It's totally inhumane with women and children its victims. Look at any political body: nearly all men. Police? Mostly men. Judges? Mostly men.
It's nearly impossible, as I age, to not get anti-men. And anti-societies that allow such exploitation of women and children.
4
The lead in this piece highlights the most irritating rub of all — the sheer magnitude and brazen consistency of the Trump as POTUS transgressions.
Whatever happened to that straw that broke the camel’s back. Really never has had much heft in our capital where genuine accountability hardly ever take a living breath.
Somehow the notion of impeachment became both a Red and Blue third rail in the face of the bar none most corrupt and incompetent presidency in living memory. What we have here is a triumph of rank political expediency vice integrity in the name of preserving the Washington swamp.
It is not the Russian connection, or the profiteering, or the blatant nepotism, or the serial fabrications and lies, or populating the Cabinet with miscreants, and on and on.
It is the mind bending accumulative whole and the framers of the Constitution knew it could come to that and wisely made provision to deal with such an existential threat to the nation.
2
THANK YOU for writing this. It's astonishing that it's not headline news.
This is about human trafficking of UNDERAGE girls. It needs greater attention.
8
The men, the wealthy men like Kraft, who purchased services from enslaved women, because they like to humiliate women in general? They can't find willing women? They can't pay for women who would otherwise speak up is my general guess.
3
For people that do not live in President Trump's world this article is a major matter. For those people that do choose to live in the President's world it is business as usual, nothing to see here, keep moving along. A modern day snake oil salesman, a master manipulator, a person that would make P. T. Barnum blush profusely. President Trump could drop bags and bags and bags of the filthiest garbage upon his supporters and they would never flinch in their support of him. I look forward to the day when the United States does not have the likes of Mr. Trump debasing the office of the President.
7
Goldberg is once again right on the money. Why isn’t this a bigger story? The answer is because money can buy a lot of silence – just ask Donald Trump. Kraft could have saved himself a lot of trouble by just asking his friend Trump to arrange some women for him at one of Trump’s hotels, rather than going to a sleazy massage parlor.
Patriot’s fans should be outraged. And they should express that outrage with their wallets – don’t buy tickets to the games. Don’t watch the games on TV. Money is the only thing people like Kraft and Trump understand. Continued support for the team will signal either indifference to an outrageous human tragedy – human sex trafficking – or a willingness to be complicit in this moral outrage.
5
Wondering when the threads around human trafficking tie back to Trump. So far, most analysis mentions the selling of access to the President, but what about the selling of human bodies? I'm sorry, but there is no way Trump is not keenly aware of what is being sold at these sex slave shops, and would not at all be surprised if he engaged in human trafficking himself.
2
Corruption is baked into American Democracy, there's a revolving door for politicians and lobbyists. Of course corruption is universal, worse in many other countries. But Trump's regime has amplified the inherent problems.
Nepotism, cronyism, profiting from government assets, lining pockets with public tax dollars, conflict of interests, bribery, team of swamp creatures, influence of foreign power, team of fixers, scandals, lies, persecution of the press, voting frauds, convicted officials, etc. The list goes on. All sounds pretty much like a corrupted third world banana republic. My apologies to the bananas.
The big scandal is not the Massage Parlor Owner. Nor Trump. It's American Democracy.
1
At last, clear enunciation of the Trump Doctrine: "grift so baroque, so galactically expansive, that trying to comprehend it all at once tests the limit of the human mind."
9
The Chinese have infiltrated our institutions, schools, politics and even the military. Don't forget that the Chinese made massive hidden contributions as far back as 1996 to the Clinton campaign. China is at war with the USA and we had better wake up.
So this is utterly appalling.
But if nothing else, can it not convince Republican politicians like Lindsey Graham that the influence they believe they have purchased with their reform allegiance to Trump is actually no influence at all?
The only thing that matters to Trump is money and power. Whatever ideas Senator Graham thinks he can persuade Trump to adopt are merely wind whistling between his ears.
3
Obviously, anything goes in Trump land--including grifters galore. The real news is that so many americans refuse to accept the clear, evidence-based criminality of the man they've elevated to the White House. Demagogues derive their power from the willfully ignorant. Seems Trump was correct when he said he could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and his supporters would remain loyal.
4
Republicans continue to hide their heads in the sand, while continuing a quiet deal with the devil.
Our nation’s religious leadership, especially those recognized as “conservative”, need to start taking a stand for morality and the lack of any morality in this President, his cronies, grifters and Congressional enablers. Or, they too, become enablers.
3
What's becoming more and more clear is just how much of an inversion "America First" is as Trump's campaign mantra. Everywhere we turn he's in hock to some deal with foreign nationals. We need to start hearing everything he says as a inverted confession about what he is really up to. "Russia, if you are listening..."
4
News that the owner of a chain of dubious massage parlors was brokering foreign access to the president of the United States should be a big deal. It has the potential to be a sex scandal, an intelligence scandal and a financial scandal all at once. And really unexplored the fact that "Trump's sister"--we are talking about a federal judge appointed by Clinton--will be a speaker at the Mar a Lago conference sponsored by Lang///Could it get any dirtier more incestuous? Given it's the Trumps one can only say YES
445
@stefanie It's notable that Trump's sister was appointed by Clinton. It's not as if he didn't know whose sister he was appointing, and I don't believe his wife would object to any of this, as long as she could keep up the appearance that everything was just fine. So much of the 2016 election was swayed by the fact that people did not see much difference between the two right-wing, corporate-sympathetic candidates, and this little fact is the icing on the cake. Please, Democrats, recognize before it's too late that the DNC needs a coup and a total routing of its corruption before a presidential candidate for 2020 can be chosen.
8
@Fern
I am really, really weary of lazy bothsidesism. There was a vast difference between the candidates in the last presidential election, as America is learning to its dismay. Do not insult me by still trying to pretend both sides were or are the same.
31
@Peter What's lazy is failing to dispute the facts and argue the moral distinctions you believe exist, then branding a statement "bothsidesism". This is a serious matter that is going to continue to haunt the Democratic party. Demographics are changing. Young people continue to reach voting age. And it's not really "both sides" when both parties are on the right.
1
I have been a certified, licensed massage therapist for more than 30 years. The use of the term "massage parlor" inaccurately ties my profession to prostitution. A better term to have used would be "human trafficking center," which is what these businesses are. Both the trafficking and those who utilize their services are despicable.
9
Back during the 2016 campaign, the Associated Press reported that Trump had made an insurance claim for millions of dollars after a hurricane hit Florida, yet his head custodian said that only a few tiles came off the roof; AP found no records of construction permits; and one of Trump's son's wedding was held there a week or two later. I thought that news would be the end of Trump's campaign. It hardly caused a stir.
9
@paulangi
One has to remember that it is Florida you are talking about who elected a governor and later Senator Rick Scott, whose former company paid a $600 million dollar fine for defrauding medicare. Trump also paid off the Florida AG to go lightly with his Trump University scam lawsuit ultimately resulting in him only paying a $25 million dollar fine while assuming no responsibility for its demise.
This is the state that in the fall also elected an outwardly "racist" governor. Fraudulent insurance claim? In Florida, who cares?
4
I have a theory that I describe metaphorically as "the mountain of power is surrounded by plains of mud". Meaning those who hold real power in society try to restrict access to it to those they can control through blackmail.
One way to do this would be to promote those who participate in petty corruption, and weed out those who refuse. Another route is to dangle temptation in front of likely up-and-comers, then promote those who bite and block those who don't.
A third route is to actively seek out a deeply-compromised individual and sponsor him. I strongly suspect that explains Dennis Hastert's swift rise from small-town high-school wrestling coach to Speaker of the House. I believe a thorough investigation of his early sponsors would prove illuminating.
3
I'm guessing the Inaugural bank accounts are for using excess funds gathered to be used in the future election campaign financing.
While the free press can't control the number of transgressions by President Trump, they can control what they investigate and report on and what they ignore. A good start would be to completely ignore Trump's tweets.
4
There are a lot of threads to this story. Let's hope the Feds pursue the immigration angles too. I've read that there is potential misuse of the EB-5 visa involved here. I'm betting that many/most/all of the women employed in the spa were visa overstayers.
No matter how much sympathy we might have for any of the characters in this play, it is likely there are no innocents.
10
Nothing that happens in Trump world has any affect at all on his poll numbers as reported on the FiveThirtyEight blog. He is still very much the favorite to win a second term in 2020, especially if the Democratic candidates continue to pursue their present course.
@Jack I would never trust a blog post. However; Trump Cult stands with him; no matter what. But; 38% is not enough to win a national election. Dems will vote for anyone opposing Trump. Ray Sipe
1
The first paragraph of this article reminded me of something I saw on a documentary - that fish will create a large swirling mass so that predators can't focus on any one and thereby don't get any. Herd animals do the same thing. That is what Trump has done to us - so many scandals we can't focus on one, so the cloud of nastiness keeps on going. Brilliant strategy that is working.
19
@K Shields
I noticed this before he was elected. If you give the 24/7 news media a single story, they will pound that tack with a sledgehammer night and day. They need to fill the time. If you overwhelm them with stories, they can't focus and the audience just hears white noise.
2
Presidential isolation isn't necessarily desirable. Trump's vulnerabilities at his rallies are likely larger than at his club. Trump connects in both venues, with the rich and the plebes alike. And he connects on Twitter.
All good? Of course not. But Trump truly models President Jackson's example of the relatable, accessible leader. It's no secret why Jackson's portrait is in the Oval Office today. Jackson blazed Trump's trail. For example, Jackson threw open the White House on Jackson's inauguration day in 1829.
Jackson was expected to lose reelection, incidentally. Yet Jackson badly beat Clay in 1832. By analogy, a Trump blow-out could happen in 2020 if the present slate of Dems is all that is presented. If socialist Bernie emerges, the Dems are in big trouble.
You know the emotional exhaustion has set in when nothing in this article feels particularly surprising. It is another just-as-expected mess in a long line of disasters this president has gifted us with.
10
First of all, it is only an impeachable offense or a crime if a Democrat does it.
I told my dad when Reagan was president that he was going to institutionalize greed. The text book definition of greed is the t rump administration. Greed and criminal conduct.
But t rump might just be exactly what the U.S. needs at this time. There would be little difference in outcomes that are really going to matter if Romney, or any other republican, were president. And if someone less repugnant were destroying the safety nets that exist in our laws, from clean air and water, to children's health and welfare, to all the other backward steps we have taken, We the People might not be noticing.
The so called president has united a great swathe of US to stand up and pay attention. That is our only hope.
The Democratic Party cannot save the Nation. We the People must act and vote and send every republican politician back under the rocks from which they have climbed.
16
I heard it best by a pundit/commentator on a radio program concerning the majority of Trump's base: They're in 'love' with him. Please take that literally as that is what was meant.
And when you're in love with someone or something, well, they can do no wrong as has been proven time and time again when it comes to Trump and his illegal antics while in office, not to mention living a life of crime most of his adult life.
And, yes, the emperor has no clothes, but try to explain that to his base...
14
A person is judged by the company they keep. djt is a pretty dirty person.
Vote anything but republican in 2020.
21
Ms. Goldberg is tragically correct: Who can possibly process this fake president’s transgressions? Yet, sadly, his whole prior career promised nothing but what we have.
713
@Tomas
Has Trump had eye surgery in the past?
I just looked closely at a pic and he has crow's feet that go up, rather than straight across from his eyes.
Why would they go up, pointing upward towards his very receded hairline?
Ah well, vanity thy name is Trump. LOL
6
@Tomas Perfectly said.
2
The Trump family is so dirty that revelations such as Massage Parlor Cindy selling access to an American President (gulp, gulp) is almost laughable. But, what really should make one cry is that nearly half of the country continues to support the Family Sleaze regardless of the slime that oozes out from under the rocks. The only way to get rid of this cancer is to legally excise it; i.e., let the courts do their jobs. If Trump’s followers want to be governed by bottom feeders, let them emigrate to Russia.
25
It's very difficult to find an American historical analog here. Teapot Dome and the Robber Barons were criminals but never made it to the Presidency. You have to go to characters like Huey Long of Louisiana, or Spiro Agnew of Maryland.
At least they were just simple criminals. In Trump's case, even if "Like, I'm really, really rich" isn't true, he does things that no leader ever has. Selling photos of himself with some random overseas criminal via a massage parlor/whorehouse owner doesn't even raise our eyebrows.
Yeah, we should have noticed it, Michelle, but the President's slobbering at Putin's side or love beaming Bin (Bone Saw) Salman seem more serious. Trump's escapades with second tier criminal lowlifes actually sounds kind of expected these days. After all, they are just like him.
16
For something to be perceived as scandalous it needs to be out of the ordinary.
Massage parlors, unvetted access, porn stars, playboy models, extra-marital affairs, nepotism, security breaches, conflicts of interest, lies to the press, lies to the people, obstructions of justice, convicted staff/advisors/lawyers - if all of that is ordinary, what constitutes a scandal? Many of us are hoping Mueller might shed some light but it’s hard to imagine what would rock a boat that sank two years ago.
12
There is a non-zero chance that Trump told Robert Kraft about Orchids of Asia. How else would he have found it?
4
"Her Chinese-language website, which appears to have been taken down, said she was hosting a conference at Mar-a-Lago later this month; Trump’s sister was listed as the guest speaker."
Trump's sister?
That would be Maryanne Trump Barry?
The former Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit?
The one who just retired on February 11, after the Super Bowl party?
The one Trump who really should know better and be well informed on the legality of interactions with a Chinese emigrant selling Chinese executives access to Trump, his family and Republican officials?
No worry.
Maryanne Trump Barry makes money off of her interactions with Yang.
And that's the most important thing, right?
Money going directly into a Trump pocket.
The defining aspect of every Trump action.
25
@D. DeMarco, thanks, we need exactly this kind of connecting the dots..
7
Michelle Goldberg, we are jaded because a new scandal pops up every few days. If we reacted to each one we'd have to be put in rubber rooms. I am not surprised at this, and I certainly would not be surprised to find out the worst: that Trump and McConnell (who dictates what gets voted on in the Senate) are on Putin's payroll.
8
Surely Trump will just insist that his ties with Cindy Orchids [first cousin thrice removed from Tim Apple] show how deeply he believes in Hands On diplomacy.
6
We are now fully into the Age of Sleaze, having moved on from the Age of UnEnlightenment. Is it possible that only three years ago we lived in a country with a functioning government and the only thing we had to deal with were obstructionist Republicans? Future historians will write endless accounts of this surreal period in our history...if we survive it.
14
"The president’s singular governing innovation has been to engage in grift so baroque, so galactically expansive, that trying to comprehend it all at once tests the limit of the human mind."
So...so...(writer stutters)... Michelle and others must be at a loss to describe Trump in new and creative ways. I looked at one site that notes "Out of the 2265 most frequently used words, 528 were identified as adjectives." However, that site focused on relative proficiency in English, so "baroque" and "galactically" weren't on the radar.
We're becoming inured to the daily gob smacking Trump inflicted on is. Somewhere a small army must be gathered whose only task is to develop an expanded slate of terms for columnists to use. If there isn't, there should be.
Excuse me. I'm off to my new job!!
4
How much does the Center for Disease Control have budgeted for pest infestation clean-up after Trump and friends leave the White House?
4
Until Fox “News” begins serving the interests of the public and becomes a legitimate news agency instead of an arm of Trump TV, this scandal will not receive the attention and urgency it should.
6
@A California Pelosi Girl
When Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes started Fox News aka "Faux News", the sole purpose of its coming in to existence along with their complete support of the Republican Party was to do everything possible to "destroy" the democratic party and its ideals and if it meant lying, cajoling and making up conspiracy theories, so be it. After years of trying, Donald Trump became the perfect "dream" participant for Fox to advance their agenda towards those that are their loyal viewers and Trump supporters, their style and focus is a perfect fit together.
Unfortunately, to believe just for a second that a cable news outlet with the highest ratings of all of them is going to change and become responsible is just NOT going to happen.
As some one recently stated while in New York looking at the Fox News building: "Fox News, the temple and its occupants fully dedicated to the dumbing down of America".
4
Faux News abets the GOP — which has become the party of anti-intellectualism, the party of dimwits, cudgeling civil discourse and any reasoning that resides beyond the amygdala.
The problem even worse than Trump is that his sleaze is perfectly acceptable to Republicans and BornAgain Christians. We seriously need to help some people locate some ethical reality and maybe a modicum of willingness to pursue democracy.
16
We have been so focused on The Russian connection, and there is lots there to focus on, that we may be missing another angle to the trump machine chasing money. We keep forgetting that the smell of money is keen in the trump machine and Ivanka has spent a lot of time with her hook baited in China. But this connection smells like bad fish. Why is this woman floating in all of the ponds trump and many others like to fish in? Why is someone rich enough to own a football team doing floating around in the back waters of Florida when he could get anything he wants delivered by room service anytime he wants? Is Cindy Yang the Chinese equivalent to Maria Butina? Are Cindy's connections to various political Pacs in China the teaser? With all of these questions floating around and many more to be asked why is this such a low key item to the Media?
8
I have a question - who vetted Trump before he became the Republican nominee?
The Republican looked the other way in 2016 and now we are stuck with a president who is a danger to our national security and a criminal.
12
@KJS
The massive amounts of money and its influence in American politics forces politicians to look the other way. Unfortunately, because of it all, Trump was essentially forty years in the making ultimately created by a political system that gave the lobbyists priority over the real needs of the constituents.
When voters are not paying attention and because of their own self-interest continue to elect those that ultimately created this mess, this is what you have.
The people that voted for Trump know that he is a crook, they just believe all the other politicians are crooks too and he could not be any worse than the rest of them.
1
Because 9,000 + lies are not high crimes enough. Pelosi's the reason so many Dems never vote. Nothing he does suffices as dangerous enough for moral action or constitutionally anchored governing. Let's wait and see if we can persuade the GOP to impeach him? Sure thing. Maybe if he pokes an intern and lies about it? Meh, maybe not.
1
Trump’s “base” - what an accurate term. They are either as “base” as he is. Or they’ve been hypnotized, mesmerized, into a mass of willfully-submissive zombies, ready to line up like some sort of horror movie scene, where huge crowds move like robots, able to trample anything in their path.
This is what worries me. So many scandals. So many crimes. And this huge, robotic wave of mesmerized supporters.
How can we avert Civil War? And right the Ship of State? I’m losing hope. My one thought is to flee to Canada. But at 74, what do I have to offer them?
We Elders are in a really bad position if violence breaks out.
Please, Mueller, can you not indict him?
7
@TheraP
You have to keep reminding yourself that even if Trump is indicted and he is impeached, he STILL has a loyal fan base of approximately 40% of the country made up of many questionable characters and violent people.
Whether he leaves office or is voted out in 2020, the fact remains that he has convinced this group that no matter what, he was cheated out of his Presidency and they will react accordingly and wherever it is, I wouldn't want to be around when it starts to happen.
Pizzagate, selling access to the Lincoln Bedroom, etc., Republican politicians and scandalmongers tend to accuse Democrats most vociferously about acts that they themselves are guilty of.
Trump has been good for the country. He has made the sleaze so open and notorious that it is easy to identify. He has brought it out into the sunlight.
Now we can begin the clean up.
1
It's funny, but at the same time Krugman is writing about conservatives reaching for something, anything to be outraged about, Goldberg is noting that everyone is is exhausted and jaded by Trump's corruption and mendacity.
Trump is chopping up the country to sell for parts, and we can't work up the same indignation that Devin Nunes achieves when his waitress asks him if he wants a straw for his drink.
5
And how would have Fox reported if Obama had hosted the foreign national owner of a chain of dubious massage parlors, unvetted, and with additional dubious links to the Chinese government?
The outrage would be deafening.
7
“I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er”
Donald Trump’s endless corruption and mendacity have
left our people and society in a situation akin to Macbeth’s. It is easy to understand Speaker Pelosi’s opinion about impeachment: that “he’s just not worth it”. He indeed is not, but
America desperately needs a way to cleanse itself, and to fully expose and understand the mess we are in. I for one think that we need to stop wading.
8
My absolute favorite is the report that that Trump and Melania sent Yang a letter thanking her for her support and saying that it is people like her who "make America great again." No. It's people like her who now populate the President's circle.
I want the old America back. You know, the one with an honest President who isn't selling out his country. Literally.
18
@Mueller Fan
'I want the old America back. You know, the one with an honest President who isn't selling out his country. Literally."
I agree!
Please, let's go back to the days before Obama!!
So fun to read the New York Times citing Mother Jones -- how good is that!
2
This is about human trafficking, a heinous crime at best, condoned and backed by the most highly placed person on the planet! Surely this is a nightmare. But I cannot wake up!
12
While the no-news about the corruption of Trump and his affiliates is interesting, what the House really needs to do is investigate the visa process that allows so many East Asian women to come into the United States legally based on bogus information. There must be some grand corruption in our consular offices over there for this to be happening. And this has been going on for years I would bet. If earlier reports are correct that between five and ten thousand illicit massage parlors are operating across the United States then tens of thousands of women have been working as sex slaves in them. For me, this is the greater scandal. And why hasn't Yang been investigated by now?
3
You Americans need a wall there in the US. It should be a giant pay wall around Trump and his businesses that precludes any foreign money getting in to him. Congress should investigate all investments in his businesses, as well. Any foreigner, and company they own or work for, who invests in him or any of his businesses should be investigated under the FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act).
6
If this were Barack Obama, Republicans would have drawn up articles of impeachment the day the story broke.
Despite all the scandals, nothing sticks to Trump. Perhaps because those who voted for him knew exactly who who was when they cast their votes. They are willing to overlook the brazen corruption in exchange for the Supreme Court and empty promises to restore white supremacy.
7
Donald Trump is a salesman. He sells things, and takes a commission on what he sells. There is nothing surprising here, although there plenty that one can be disgusted with.
2
I don't have the "Fairy Tale Guide To Life", in front of me, but I do recall one of the stories. A little boy would run to the village and cry, "there Is a Wolf." The village responded, but found the boy was lying. The boy did it again. And, again. The last time he did it, the Wolf really had appeared, with the ensuing carnage, only a Wolf could bring.
Since most of us don't have "There's a Wolf In My life" app, we rely on legal safe guards, to protect us from the false alarms. In fact, there is a good reason to believe these safe guards are effective. At least against wolves, less so against phoney MAGA hat wearing thugs.
94 weeks into the Trump presidency and we have a potential event that could bring down the Wolf. Except! This happens at least once a week and sometimes 2 or 3 times. By now, MG, there could be video proof, witnesses and a signed confession on Presidential stationary.
After 94 weeks any accusation is treated as, "Yeah, I could believe that."931
1
"Under Trump, America’s leadership and its secrets are for sale." What does that make Trump if not a President for sale?
The issue at hand is that it does not matter how many scandals and corruption seems to be going on, we have a Teflon president who is going straight to his second term and Pelosi says she is not interested in impeachment.
I hope that the GOP display of enablement to the president is not a contagious disease called "all for a political agenda".
It does matter that the vetting process to have access to Trump in Mar-a-Lago is orchestrated by a madam who probably met the candidates as sex parlors clients.
4
Trump staff vetting test: do you have the cash?
Yes.
You're cleared.
5
Trump has been in campaign mode since his election, and each new scandal seems to burnish his image among his followers. During his last campaign, unorthodox antics appealed to those craving a change in conventional politics, and now he is buoyantly reinforcing that unconventional defiance. As Al Jolson once said, "You ain't seen nothin' yet!"
4
It seems that if the FBI and Congress are investigating the possibility that the president is compromised with respect to Russia (by financial dealings and/or something else), maybe they need to open up the lens further. Anyone in power could be blackmailed if they could be credibly associated, even somewhat indirectly, with sex trafficking, particularly of under-age girls.
2
I'm impressed that the sheriff charged Kraft, and a list of rich men. Usually they go uncharged. He's charged with a misdemeanor -- the penalty for a first offense is a $500 fine.
Wow, that's a big penalty to Mr. Kraft, eh?
His real problem is the humiliation, and he deserves every minute of it. Guy like him buying $50 per half hour sex, from trapped asian sex slaves?
Digging to the bottom of this one will be hard and dirty all the way down, and the fix will be in at every step that touches powerful but really cheap men.
Michele's right that this reaches into places and ranks of people that nobody wants to admit, and they tend to have the power to shut off or buy off any investigation.
Remember Elliot Spitzer? How many people remember "the Emperor's Club VIP?" It was the high-priced call-girl ring offering services in New York, Washington DC, and overseas. The FBI was tapping its phones in DC and following bank accounts, and at one point in the Spitzer scandal said that it had the names of "over 1,500 clients."
Nobody was ever prosecuted. Spitzer was forced to resign, and the Duke of Westminster and Lord Shaftsbury were also publicly outed and embarrassed ... and no others.
The FBI had 1,500 names of "clients" in Washington DC, presumably many of them hiring prostitutes as payoffs or influence or the power of blackmail in the capital of the United States and there isn't a single prosecution? Not one?
503
@Lee Harrison
Kraft is paying a lot more than $500 to avoid pleading guilty to a misdemeanor prostitution charge. It's definitely about humiliation. He doesn't want that misdemeanor on his record. He certainly doesn't want to testify either. First question: Have you ever paid for any sexual act? Second question: How many times have you paid sexual acts? All this under oath.
I'm guessing there were more incidents than what the police found in a dragnet. Whoops.
27
@Lee Harrison
The problem is with the ownership that trades on these women and keeps them in slavery. That's where the resources should be used to prosecute.
Not on Kraft.
If he wants to engage in meaningless acts with his massage, our government should not be wasting its time interfering, UNLESS he knows these women are "slaves". Otherwise, the government needs to stay out of wasting our resources.
8
@Lee Harrison,
I'd like to phrase this delicately, so here goes.....
These rich men might save a buck and get in a lot less trouble if they'd practice a bit of "self-sufficiency".
27
OK, but why is most of the focus in this scandalized piece on the fact that she sold access to the Trump administration to Chinese businessmen or government affiliates, and not on the fact that she profited from sex slavery?
She ran a literal retail brothel chain staffed by immigrant women whose passports were confiscated while they "paid off their debts." By performing sex acts on demand for old perverts like Trump's good buddy Kraft. Why are we talking about 2700 dollar plates of food?
The man keeps company with literal sex traffickers, and we're talking about the price of an inauguration ticket. Where is the sense of perspective?
6
@Alex: This will be discussed further. Apparently she wasn't the owner at the time of the raids and arrests, so she isn't being accused of running a brothel chain yet. Technically, there are such things as legitimate massage parlors. But apparently there is reason to believe that the sex business was going on at the time she owned them, and we can expect to see some evidence of that. Until then, the story is just about what we have evidence of.
(But the chances are good that you're right, and the whole trafficking and exploitation business was going on under her management. It's quite possible that her selling the chain was just some paper transaction, and she might have still been deeply involved right up to the present. I expect we will learn more about this.)
3
And along with the massage parlor owners (aka sex traffickers) rubbing shoulders with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, don’t forget the three influence- peddlers seemingly trying to run the VA from the “Florida White House.” Fortunately now that the “House Committee of Veterans’ Affairs” is led by a Democrat, there is finally an investigation into how a trio of wealthy Mar-a-Lago members have been trying to influence major policy decisions over the VA in the past months.
Trump confidant Ike Perlmutter, chairman of Marvel Entertainment, Bruce Moskowitz, a Palm Beach doctor and Marc Sherman, a lawyer, none of whom have served in the U.S. military or held government positions are said to have exerted daily influence on policy and personnel decisions affecting millions of veterans and their families.
There is so much corruption of every stripe in the Trump White House that it’s not not surprising they needed the annex of Mar-a-Lago to contain the overflow.
7
He got elected after we heard him tell someone how he really likes to treat women. He's still in office in spite of the fact that he is suspected of having committed treason, is most likely taking bribes in the way of business thrown his kids' way, is destroying every single department of the government, lies daily about inane and important things alike, engages in nepotism, and on... Then, there are his policies, which, quite clearly, do not favor American interests, but curiously end up to the advantage of our competitors.
This is where Putin and the massage parlor come in. They know which side to butter Trump's toast on.
Our House Speaker? She thinks Trump isn't important enough to act on impeachment. It would be too divisive, she tells WaPo. 30% of voters elected Trump. At least 50% want to see him held accountable for treason, at the very least.
I guess we're still chopped liver...
---
Things Trump Did While You Weren't Looking
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-3h2
7
All of the current scandals and debacles don't seem to have any effect on Trump's base.
In order to loosen Trump's grip on 40-42% of the electorate, someone needs to find a recording of him making fun of or doing imitations of:
Republican members of Congress
Republican Governors
Evangelicals
Ronald Reagan
Midwesterners
Other Southerners besides Jeff Sessions
Coal miners, auto workers, and farmers
The NRA
4
Mr.Trump’s modus operandi is to be the life of the party- any Party-the Chinese Party, the Russian Party! As he sees someone with money who supports him he smiles and poses for a picture. For someone who fibs as much as he does, it is no surprise to find him befriending the owner of a Massage Parlor which is involved in human trafficking.Nothing shocks me- I just marvel that Trump finds so many compromised characters when the world I live in is full of admirable people.
5
Somewhere in conservative Bizarro land this is perfectly normal. It is truly hard to fathom that we've been brought so low.
8
Am am really loosing faith in the American justice, so much corruption unchallenged, and no discernible punishment that fits the crime - see Manafort's lenient sentencing. Meanwhile our democracy is being dismantled from the inside while the kleptocracy rakes in the billions. If there is a ray of hope, someone point it out to me please!
1
Barron. I was trying to think of a Trump associate who is not compromised and corrupt. The only one I can think of is the kid. I fear for his future.
7
@Occupy Government
Unfortunately, the kid is broken. He is no different than the child “Michael Jackson “ being push and prodded” by Daddy Joe- The apple does not fall far from the tree. He has corrupted half brothers and half sisters and a few other sons and daughters of the .01% bunch showing him the ropes and educating him to the way of the flies....There is a very strong probability that he will become a monster.
1
Ms. pelosi is correct, the evidence, corruption , incompetence,will continue,and the american people will see all, the mueller report,
the corrupt associates, convicted, this presidency will die of its own weight, the president will eventually resign, be impeached,
or voted out,and likely be charged by the sdny. this admin. is beyond comprehension, we are beyond having enough,
6
I would file this story under "developing." There are multiple investigations into Trump's inaugural committee. Yang sort of just falls into that pot. We'll see what happens. The only news is Trump's connection to a sex trafficking and prostitution ring associated with Bob Kraft. We might have to file this story under "developing" as well. Trump's relationship Jeffrey Epstein, also connected to Mar-a-Lago, was already suspicious. Yang represents a second connection to Palm Beach sex crimes.
Two times a coincidence, third time a pattern. I think we're seeing a pattern here.
4
And I guess this means the Republican Party is for sale, since they are Trump. If they cared about the country, they’d put a leash on his business dealings—but they don’t. Looking at you, McConnell.
8
Who's Donald Trump? That is what they'll be asking in 2057. We've had a coupe horrible presidents before...they eventually wind up in the dustbin of history with an asterisk next to their name. Same with Trump. The democrats should focus on voter turnout.
3
I just finished "Becoming," in which Michelle Obama describes the care that the Obama administration took in every way possible to avoid missteps, knowing that the GOP would pounce at the least hint of impropriety. And now, this! How is it the country has gone from an administration in which the biggest scandal was the President wearing a tan suit to a press briefing to a daily diet of scandal, sleaze, and sinning against the people, the Constitution, and basic human dignity? I do not understand!
7
Kraft a close friend of Trump? Only the Donald is a close friend of Trump. And as long as someone has money, Trump grants access. This fact of our current state of political affairs will carry him to a second term. He can buy the presidency because fewer than half of electoral college voters will be able to vote for this stooge. Donald’s steadfast voters cling to the notion that he is a great business man. The far right evangelicals cling to the power in his shadow and have chosen a deal with the devil rather than walking the straight and narrow. Ms. Goldberg, you can write until your fingers fall off but Trump ain’t goin’ nowhere. His sycophant followers have either bought into the Trumpian myth or wish to hold as much power as possible in the darkness of Trump for as long as possible by associating with our criminal president.
2
For this 'massage' industry to have thrived - and continue to thrive - indicates that the so-called 'authorities' allow it. Follow the money. (Is the Trump-Kushner crime family collecting some of the profits too?).
3