Just Politics

[janice shell]

I don't think it's any of that. She agreed to a business deal. She and Trump were involved--at first not exclusively--for seven years before they married. I'm sure by the time he popped the question, she knew exactly who and what he was. But she was getting older, and didn't have much in the way of prospects as a model. Presumably she hadn't met anyone who seemed a better prospect than The Donald. And so she agreed.

Obviously he continued to have affairs, or at least to sleep with other women. Probably she accepted the first one she learned about, because probably he apologized, and seemed penitent. And then she accepted the second, and so on. He agreed to let her have a child, which no doubt was something she badly wanted. Chances are he didn't want any others.

So she got to live in luxury, raise her son, and invite her parents to live in Trump Tower for most of the year. She's said many times that both she and Trump are "very independent people", which seems to mean they don't spend much time together. And probably that he doesn't care what she does when he's not there, as long as she doesn't embarrass her.

She seems to be a genuinely private person, so the presidential campaign didn't make her happy. But he assured her he'd lose, and they'd return to their old life. Unfortunately for them and us, that didn't happen. Probably they came to some kind of agreement about what she would and wouldn't do as First Lady. But I'm sure the Billy Bush tape, the subsequent accusations from women he'd molested, and now the Stormy Daniels payoff have been humiliating for her. Way too public. And not what she'd signed up for.