So is Donald Trump–allegedly a Romney supporter–secretly working to reelect President Obama?
The rumor mill—bolstered by a report in a U.K. newspaper—is abuzz with word that Trump is about to release divorce papers—if such papers actually exist—filed by the Obamas more than a decade ago.
Please tell me Trump isn’t that stupid.
No matter what one could find in such documents—again, if they exist—the revelations have got to be less unsavory than the antics of Mr. Trump during his made-for-tabloids divorces.
But that’s not the point: releasing such documents would be unseemly and might very well harm Mitt Romney, who is doing fine without the combed one, thank you very much.
An email from National Review states:
Trump Concludes Campaign Going Too Well for Romney; Decides to Make Final Weeks of Race All about Himself
Oh, Donald . . . (or is it, "The Donald"?) . . . could you possibly be so dense to believe this would help the causes you claim to believe in? …
As mentioned on Campaign Spot, the Obamas' near-divorce is old news to those who have been paying attention, and, barring some giant new revelations, relatively irrelevant to the choice before Americans at this moment. We want the electorate judging Obama on his decisions as a president from January 20 to now, as opposed to his decisions as a husband back in the 1990s.
Trump lives for the spotlight. I can remember sitting in my editor’s office at the New York Daily News, where I was briefly a gossip columnist, as we tried to figure out whether anonymous tips about Trump were from…Trump.
But this isn't just juicy gossip–it would be harmful to the Romney campaign. Releasing this kind of information would also be a really sleazy thing to do. Indeed, unsealed divorce records was a staple of President Obama's state-level races.
I sincerely hope somebody stops Trump, if this is what he is up to. It takes discipline—never Trump’s forte—to sit on gossip of this sort. But the victim would be Mitt Romney, himself a paragon of self-control. That was what was so great about Mitt's third debate: he was incredibly disciplined, playing for the presidency instead of scoring points on Benghazi. (After all, he can deal with Benghazi when he is in the White House, if he makes it, and has access to all the information.)
The Obamas, who, whatever their previous troubles, operate as a team now, probably hope they have goaded Trump into revealing something they likely don't care that much about after all these years but would harm the guy who could take away their house and plane.