By Scott Tibbs, April 8, 2016
The silly dust-up over a nude photo of Donald Trump's model wife demonstrates just how stupid this man is, and how he is therefore completely unqualified to be President due to that stupidity.
First, let's make one thing very, very clear: Absolutely no wrong was done to Trump or his wife in publishing that meme. This is not a case where a paparazzi stalker took pictures of someone without her knowledge or consent, which has been done to other celebrities. This is not a case where hackers stole private photos from someone's iCloud account and posted them online. This is not even a case where someone took pictures from Facebook that were limited to a small number of "friends" and distributed them publicly.
This is a case where a woman knowingly and intentionally posed nude, for a magazine photo shoot, with the desire to see those photos distributed as widely as possible in public. If Trump has this much of a problem with these pictures, he should not have permitted her to do the photo shoot. (Of course, a wife or girlfriend should and does have the same veto over her husband or boyfriend doing a racy photo shoot, so please spare me the "misogyny" nonsense.)
It is true that, generally, politicians' spouses and family should be off-limits. But when a politician's spouse makes himself or herself a public figure, that rule does not apply. The most glaring example is Bill Clinton, who was President of these United States for eight years. Obviously, he will figure strongly in his wife's campaign and it is expected he will have a major role in her administration if she is elected. With Mrs. Trump, she willfully exposed herself to public scrutiny, so her modeling is a legitimate topic of discussion.
Finally, Trump shows he does not know the basics of campaign finance law, and this ignorance is not encouraging in someone who may be President. Political Action Committees are independent of the candidates and no coordination is allowed between candidates and PACs that support them. If Ted Cruz knew about the anti-Trump meme before it went public, then Cruz broke the law. If Trump legitimate believes that Cruz engaged in illegal coordination, then Trump needs to put up or shut up. Instead of personally attacking Heidi Cruz's appearance, Trump should file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission.
All in all, this is just another example of how Donald Trump is both profoundly ignorant and dim-witted. He should not be anywhere near the White House and the awesome power of the Presidency.
