In the upcoming Presidential election, will adultery trump God? Currently, the Republican front-runners are Donald Trump, a known philanderer, and Ted Cruz, who ties his every moves to God and sounds more like a preacher admonishing his flock.
You could say that Trump has made an honest woman of his mistress Melania Knauss by marrying her. They met in 1998, while Trump was separated but still not divorced from second wife Marla Marples. In his book, The Art of the Deal, originally published in 1987, Trump, bragged about bedding other men’s wives: “If I told the real stories of my experiences with women, often seemingly very happily married and important women, this book would be a guaranteed best-seller.”
His well-documented affair with actress and model Marla Marples, while married to Ivana, led to an acrimonious divorce. Trump wed Marla soon afterwards. She was 17 years younger than her husband. However, as the late British business tycoon and philanderer, Sir James Goldsmith declared, “When you marry your mistress you create a vacancy.” After about five years of marriage, he found himself a younger model, Melania Knauss—yes she’s a model too, and 24 years his junior. They wed in 2005. Since they are still married, maybe Melania has made an honest man of him, but given his previous history, most likely not.
The fascination of rich and powerful people with younger and very beautiful women is matched by the public’s fascination with those who are rich and powerful and/or stunningly attractive. Melania is quite the eye candy. Trump follows the standard rich man’s playbook of continually replacing his wives and mistresses with younger, more attractive versions. In my book, Adulterer’s Wife: How to Thrive Whether You Stay or Not, I write in detail about how to deal with infidelity and being usurped by a younger woman. Even for Ivana and Marla, being trumped by a younger model is an unpleasant, painful experience. Nevertheless, at least these discarded dames still have their looks and big bucks from the divorces. It’s much harder for most women in their 40s and older, who aren’t supermodels with huge bank accounts, to find a fulfilling way to cope with adultery and/or come to terms with being dumped for another woman.
It appears that the rumor mills are desperately trying to link
Ted Cruz to adultery scandals, but so far nothing has been substantiated. He has been accused of ‘involvement’ with Katrina Pierson (see: http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/breaking-ted-cruz-sex-scandal-appears-looming/#ixzz43q4xCmEo). Pierson is a former consultant for Cruz’s United States Senate campaign and, ironically, now the national spokeswoman for businessman Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Does Cruz ‘out-God’ an avowed adulterer? Cruz’s morals are secure—he’s a Southern Baptist who claims to tie every move he makes and every breath he takes to God and proclaims, “We can turn our country around, but only if the body of Christ rises up.”
Despite their avowed disdain of Former President Clinton for his affair with Monica Lewinsky, the House and Senate are stuffed with politicians who have committed adultery at one time or another. The White House too has been home to many a philanderer.
Former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford admitted in 2009 that he was having an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman, Maria Belén Chapur, and had lied about his whereabouts. He claimed that he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, so that this has now become a euphemism for extramarital bonking. After the revelations, Sanford resigned his position as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, but continued to serve as governor. In 2013 his constituency was happy to elect him as US Representative for South Carolina. It served Sanford well to use plenty of references to God and Jesus in his political campaign.
Similarly, the American voting public can be assured that Trump’s moral integrity is intact—he’s a Presbyterian who goes to church on Sundays and collects Bibles. He is clearly a staunch believer in God, as evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr. has endorsed him.
Is the lesson here that you can commit adultery and get away with it during and after elections, as long as you fortify your speeches with plenty of references to God?