question: are trump's infidelities confirmed or just (highly probable) rumors/suspicions?

[unblock]

if hillary uses it as a counter to trump bringing up bill's, trump would of course deny it.
well, who knows, he might say "that makes me smart". could go either way.

but really i'm asking how a fact checker like politifact would call it, if hillary said trump has been adulterous.

"truth", "probably true", or "unproven"?

[mcar]

1. He has publicly bragged about it

[Wounded Bear]

4. Didn't he spend hours on Howard Stern's radio show?

That says a lot about the kind of people he hangs with.

IIRC, he styled himself to be some kind of Hugh Hefner playboy type.

[mcar]

14. Agree

Yuck!

[Cracklin Charlie]

2. Gross.

Not gonna spend a minute thinking about that. He's toast.

[Thinkingabout]

3. Marla Maples was in the picture before he divorced his wife. This is one which

Was in the news.

[Historic NY]

9. She had the baby before the his divorce was finalized.

[Freddie]

15. According to Marla

He wanted her to have an abortion. Real pro-life, eh? Hope that comes out somewhere.
Of course she had Tiffany, they married afterwards and then he dumped her by announcing it in the NY Post before telling her in person. What a prince.

[Ilsa]

24. She had the baby before they married, I think.

I think I remember her reading an article about her having to take off her wedding gown to breastfeed the baby, and that's why the ceremony started late.

[Mamajami]

5. It would be sweet if the divorced wives turned up at the next debate, including Rudy's.

[tblue37]

6. Marla once approached Ivana in a restaurant and told her that she loved Trump

and if Ivana didn't want him, Marla did. The affair with Marla was well documented in the celebrity press.

[GoCubsGo]

7. I take it you don't remember the late 1980s?

His affair with Marla Maples, while he was married to Ivana, was the scandal of the time. Do a search on her name. You'll find out all you need to know.

[unblock]

12. i've never really paid attention to celebrity gossip

and trump in particular i had dismissed early on as a crass jerk and a boor not worthy of my attention.
guess i misunderestimated him.

i've looked online and i've seen where articles assert it as fact but i've not seen on what basis.
is there a quote from him boasting about it?

best i've seen was that he invoked the 5th repeatedly during a divorce deposition when asked about infidelity, which is pretty damn close to a confession....

[GoCubsGo]

22. I don't pay attention to it, either.

But, it was nearly impossible to not hear about it at the time, since even the regular news casts reported on it.

[unblock]

26. i stopped watching regular news ages ago.

did wonders for my blood pressure

so much useless and irrelevant information. plus *every* news story where i had some particular insight was chock full or errors.

my father got on the news once upon a time for something he did as a professor. mrs. unblock got in the news once for doing a 100 mile bike race while battling cancer. both stories had many errors that would have been super easy to correct.

i've heard more stories about finance and technology, where i have some professional expertise, and here many errors as well.

so i figure just about any story i hear may be vaguely right but full of errors, including direct quotes which the person never actually said.

and then there are the commercials and the fluff and so on.

lbn is *way* better at getting me the stuff i'm interested in, even for non-political things.

[LaydeeBug]

45. That was around the same time John Miller was calling the NY Press

and the other pseudonym...and melania's mystery speech writer.

[Avalux]

8. She won't go there.

She won't get in the gutter with Donald over such a thing. Bill is not running; there's no point in even acknowledging Donald when he brings it up. Narcissists hate nothing more than to be dismissed or ignored and that's exactly what Hillary needs to do, without missing a beat.

It will be the biggest mistake of his life to say anything.

[Hortensis]

17. Right. "When they go low," H will stand back and let

everyone take a gooood look. She did that as much as possible in the first debate, in fact. He threw out trash, which she let fall right at his own feet.

[CajunBlazer]

23. Why not? His adulty has been public knowledge for years

It goes to his character, the kind of man that he is. If Bill affairs can be held against Hillary because she dared to believe and defend her husband before she knew better, certainly Trumps affairs are fair game.

As a man, I cannot understand how Hillary can be blamed for being a victim while Trump cannot be blamed for making his wives victims.

[eShirl]

44. Enough other people will attack him on it that she won't have to.

[CajunBlazer]

46. True, but the media always picks up on the candates' lines fo attacks

Sometimes you just need to get them started talking about what Hillary's campaign wants them to talk about.

[lapfog_1]

10. I recall the tabloids of the day

going to town on Marla Maples while The Donald was still married to Ivana.

There were photos and stories and I think even The Donald bragged about his sex life with his mistress.

Donald met Marla in 1989 and didn't divorce Ivana until 1991...

[JTFrog]

11. Funny both exes under confidentiality clauses. I know this is probably tabloidish, but interesting:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/donald-trump-history-women-adultery-objectification-article-1.2604073

During Hillary’s Senate run in 2000, she frequently stayed in Steven Spielberg’s Trump Tower apartment, until her Secret Service army became an annoyance to other residents. Trump was still toying with a presidential run at the time, telling MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, “Can you imagine how controversial I’d be? You think about Clinton and the women. How about me and the women? Can you imagine?”

When Matthews mentioned Lewinsky, Donald answered, “Yeah. They might like my women better too.”

[Laura PourMeADrink]

19. Ha ! My mistresses are prettier than your mistresses !

[randome]

13. The thing that matters (not that any of it does, really) is that the Clintons worked things out.

Trump and his ex-wives did not.

If she is 'confronted' with some lame-ass question about Bill, she should say she's simply not going to drag families into a political debate. Trump can go there if he wants. It's a losing topic for him, no matter how he tries to phrase things.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]

[bigbrother05]

20. "Having attended your THIRD wedding, I suggest we leave families out of this."

[randome]

21. Excellent.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]

[renate]

35. I like it! and it has the added bonus of reminding his supporters

... that he used to be friendly enough with the Clintons to invite them to his wedding, even if it was more of a power-friend than a friend-friend thing.

Great idea!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

16. He was more than willing to bask in the ridiculous circus when he was fucking around on wife#1. Just

look at any 80s tabloid. I don't know about the 2nd though.

[skylucy]

18. I am old enough to remember all the Magazine and tabloid stories, interviews and appearances

on Howard Stern about the Donald. Trump is a cheater and that has been confirmed. I don't think he would even try to dispute that fact because he is proud of it. I believe he has also bragged about cheating with married women. I wonder why all his dumb male supporters don't find that off-putting. Birds of a feather maybe.

[CajunBlazer]

25. Trump caused a lot of pain for his family with that affair

Ivanka was recently asked by an interviewer how she felt when the press was harassing her when she was a teenager to get her comments about the fact that her father was publicly flaunting his relationship with Maples while not even yet separated from her mother. Predictably she said it was horrible.

Donald Jr. didn't speak to his father for a year.

To those who say Hillary "shouldn't join Trump in the gutter" and bring up his affairs:

Why not - it goes to his character, the kind of man that he is. If Bill affairs can be held against Hillary because she dared to believe and defend her husband before she knew better, certainly Trumps affairs are fair game.

As a man, I cannot understand how Hillary can be blamed for being a victim while Trump cannot be blamed for making his wives victims.

[unblock]

29. supposedly he won't blame her for bill's actions, but for her own words

e.g., criticizing monica instead of publicly slamming bill (as if she didn't tear him a new one in private).

it's a thin excuse to talk about something salacious, but they can say they're not blaming her for what bill did.

[CajunBlazer]

37. I totally understand what they have done and what intend to do

But tell me this - should a woman who is a victim of her husband's infidelity be blamed for defending him against attacks by another woman if she initially believes his pleas of innocence? Aren't we normally regard our long time spouses as being innocent, at least in public, until they are proven guilty.

We wouldn't damn any person for defending their spouse against any attack if they believed the charges to be untrue. Why is this any different?

What it comes down to, despite Trump's contention to the contrary, is trying to saddle a woman for her husband's sins in the eyes of the public.

Given Donald's philandering ways, it is a clear case of a victimizer blaming a victim.

[unblock]

40. totally agree.

trump is despicable in many ways and can't help prove it over and over.

[Ilsa]

27. Hillary should let the surrogates and supporters

nail trump on this crap. Let her stay above it.

[unblock]

30. in general, absolutely. but if trump bring it up during a debate?

she might not be able to dodge it in an open-ended discussion period.

[Ilsa]

31. I agree. Don't run away from it, and

be classy in making innuendoes without insulting the mothers of his children.

[maxrandb]

28. Sad thing is

he's the kind of person where questioning the validity of his philandering or prowess with woman would hurt him more than the infidelity and skeeziness itself.

Just look at what the hand-size thing does to him

[ColemanMaskell]

32. Here's a link to a video with Donald Trump footage / Howard Stern

Here is a link to a video

Trump says in the video that he said to Marla "What are we going to do about this?"
-- not that he actually suggested she "do" anything.

I agree that Hillary should and probably will just go high when Trump goes low. But if circumstances are such that she finds it best to bring up Trump's affair(s) in rebuttal, it might be best to focus not so much on the infidelity as on the suggestion of abortion. (See that infidelity, raise you one abortion suggestion)

[Ilsa]

33. Hang on to this. You might want to do an OP. nt

[ColemanMaskell]

41. Ilsa, feel free to create a post with it yourself if you like it and want to share it further.

[LeftInTX]

34. He also said fighting STDs wa his own Vietnam

Or something like that

[Demsrule86]

36. He got Marla Maples preggers while being married to Ivana so yes

his infidelities are confirmed.

[Hekate]

38. He BOASTED about it. Jeez. I don't know why so many think HRC will get in the gutter with DTs

I really do not understand that. Look at her. She's not going to act out all the fantasies I read here at DU.

Really.

[Gabi Hayes]

39. I know it all......

Wingnut religious site quotes trump boasting about serial adultery in his own book:

http://therightscoop.com/heres-when-trump-bragged-in-his-book-about-his-multiple-affairs-with-his-friends-wives/

In The Art of the Deal, Trump boasted 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,” he wrote.

I wish Tony Schwartz would be allowed on TV every day to talk at length and in detail about this stuff.

[Mamajami]

42. I am sure that the only reason you won't hear more from Trumps other wives is that

their divorce settlement probably says their money will be cut off if they talk about negatively in any way.

[avebury]

43. Considering the fact that Wife # 1

confronted Marla Maples on the ski slopes when Maples was present at a Trump family vacation. Don the Con's infidelity is pretty much confirmed.