Donald Trump's first year of Presidency certainly hasn't been lacking in the scandal department. There have been dismissals, forced resignations, and quarrels with everyone from senior White House execs to foreign heads of state. As such, it's no surprise that the billionaire business mogul has the lowest approval rating of any president in modern history, with almost half of America considering him "mentally unfit".
While Trump has repeatedly been slammed with allegations of sexual misconduct, the latest is potentially the most serious - for him, at least. Following a golf tournament in 2006 at Lake Tahoe - a year after he married Melania - Trump purportedly had a brief affair with the adult film star, Stormy Daniels. The actress's lawyer has claimed that she was paid $130,000 before the presidential election to guarantee her silence. And while the Trump administration initially dismissed the story as a fabrication, the president's personal lawyer confirmed in a statement to the press last month that he privately paid Ms. Daniels.
In a 60 Minutes interview, yesterday, Daniels didn't refrain from adding fuel to the fire - going so far as to claim that the 45th President of the United States informed her that he and Melania were sleeping in separate bedrooms. The First Lady and her team have remained silent on the issue, until now.
"While I know the media is enjoying speculation and salacious gossip, I'd like to remind people there’s a minor child who’s name should be kept out of news stories when at all possible," Stephanie Grisham, the First Lady's director of communications tweeted while the interview aired.
Grisham is clearly alluding to Trump and Melania's 12-year-old son, Barron, who had just been born around the time of the alleged affair. Many on social media have stressed that there are two children whose privacy needs to be respected in light of the current situation - Barron's, and that of Stormy Daniels's 7-year-old daughter.
Since Daniels's claims caught the attention of the press, Melania has kept up her usual front - continuing to fulfil public engagements, and tweeting on unrelated matters. What is more noticeable, however, is Trump's radio silence. Certainly, Daniels may be the only person who has attacked Trump and been spared one of his infamous Twitter takedowns.
One of the interview's biggest bombshells came when the adult actress claimed that after she agreed to sell her story to In Touch Magazine, a man approached her and her daughter in Las Vegas and threatened them.
"I was in a parking lot, going to a fitness class with my infant daughter. Taking, you know, the seats facing backwards in the backseat, diaper bag, you know, getting all the stuff out," the 39-year-old said. "And a guy walked up on me and said to me, 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.' And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, 'That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom.' And then he was gone."
In related news, people on Twitter think that Stormy Daniels' lawyer just tweeted a photo of a possible sex tape.