Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a lunch break in his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 21.

In 2016, Donald Trump was so afraid that revelations about his affairs with a Playboy model and a porn actress would tank his presidency chances that he paid the women off.

In 2024, Trump is doubtless afraid of being convicted of a felony for cooking his business records to cover up those payoffs, or of being found guilty in any or all of the other three federal and state criminal cases against him.

And he has good reason to worry. In a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll, 16% of his supporters said they would reconsider their support of him, and 4% would withdraw it altogether, if he's convicted in his current hush-money trial in Manhattan. A poll by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab found he could lose 10% of his supporters if convicted. Not as much as it should be in a responsible electorate, but enough to make a difference in a very tight race.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

But neither Trump nor anybody else seems to think these adulterous acts themselves will have any impact on his electability or on the loyalty of Republicans, from his base to the party’s elites.

If President Joe Biden were found to have cut checks to a porn star in the Oval Office, Republicans would no doubt be righteously decrying the desecration of........

© Times Union