Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive, via Getty Images
The party of family values has chosen a candidate without family values.
Oct. 30, 2020
The Republican party has always been the party of strong family values.
Republicans have long championed the idea that families must be built with a strong moral compass at their heart. They must be built on strong marriages and good parenting. They must be built on trust. Donald Trump is an embarrassment to the party of traditional family values. Here's why.
<h3>Trump has been divorced–twice.</h3><p>Donald Trump has been through 3 marriages and 2 very public divorces. Divorce is very common in our current culture, but we generally hold our presidents to a higher standard. (It's worth noting that divorce is <a href="https://www.openbible.info/topics/divorce" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">technically</a> prohibited in the Bible). In fact, he is only our <a href="https://www.elitedaily.com/p/which-presidents-have-been-divorced-its-not-a-long-list-18232000" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">second</a> ever president to have been divorced. </p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-141"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent1 - mid_content --></p><h3>Trump publicly cheated on his first wife.</h3><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDYzNTk0MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1OTc1MjE5OH0.YxMLmDHrvnYbMc4bsYXBTV4ctsBfptS6V9g6Fhhv4ig/img.jpg?width=980" id="157f2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="08c5e2230cc03617be4cb990fa185785" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt='Donald Trump with mistress Marla Maples on left, on right picture of famous New York Post cover with Donald smiling and "BEST SEX I EVER HAD" as the title' data-width="1908" data-height="1146">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">The infamous New York Post headline "Marla boasts to her pals about Donald: 'Best sex I've ever had'" released in 1990.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">New York Post</small></p><p>Trump's marriage to his first wife, Ivana, fell apart when he began an affair with the model Marla Maples, which <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-ivana-divorce-tabloid-covers-2017-10" target="_blank">dominated</a> the <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/i-wrote-donald-trumps-infamous-best-sex-i-ever-had-story-guest-column-1101246" target="_blank">tabloids</a> in the early 1990s. His very public affair even affected his children. "The children are all wrecks," Ivana told <a href="https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/share/e515a2cd-a51b-4f83-8d61-6ebb9a104e0a" target="_blank">gossip columnist Liz Smith</a>. "Ivanka now comes home from school crying, 'Mommy, does it mean I'm not going to be Ivanka Trump anymore?' Little Eric asks me, 'Is it true you are going away and not coming back?'"<br></p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-143"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent2 - long_content --></p><p>Marital fidelity has always been a joke to Donald Trump. In a 1993 interview, Trump and Howard Stern engaged in a conversation about fidelity in marriage, with Stern relaying how Trump was shocked when he told him that he doesn't cheat on his wife. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/08/politics/trump-on-howard-stern/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Stern said</a>, "Donald asked me during the commercials — and I don't think you mind me saying it—he says to me, 'So you don't get it on with anybody? I said 'I'm really faithful to my wife' and he goes 'you're kidding? Really? What's that all about?'"</p><h3>Trump had a child out of wedlock.</h3><p>Even after his divorce was finalized in 1991, Trump chose not to make an "honest woman" out of his mistress Maples. A spokesperson, who <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/05/13/donald-trump-people-magazine-washington/84333614/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">many believe</a> was actually Trump himself, told a <a href="https://people.com/celebrity/inside-donald-trumps-apology-to-people-reporter-after-posing-as-spokesperson/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>People</em> reporter</a> that Trump would never marry Maples, and that he had "three other girlfriends" at the time. </p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-145"></div>
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</script></p><p>So it's not particularly shocking that when Marla Maples announced to Trump that she was pregnant with Tiffany, his first words to her–as repeated by him on <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-tiffany-trump-ivanka-trump-tapes-howard-sterm-671826" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>The Howard Stern Show</em> in 2003</a>–were "What are we going to do about this?" Yet despite Trump's possible insinuation that she should abort the child, in 1993 Maples gave birth to Trump's fourth child, born out of wedlock. Shortly after her birth, Maples and Trump finally married, but the marriage was short-lived. </p><h3>Trump's current marriage is filled with scandal.</h3><p>The divorce with Maples wasn't finalized until 1999, so Trump was still technically married when he met his next wife, Melania Knauss. The pair met at a party in 1998 and Trump was on a date but, as he recalled later, he was immediately drawn to his future wife, if not immediately in love. "I went crazy. I was actually supposed to meet somebody else," Trump <a href="http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0512/25/lkl.08.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recalled to Larry King on <em>CNN</em></a> in 2005 shortly after the pair were married. His marriage to Melania has been his longest, but it hasn't been without scandal. He has been accused of having multiple affairs throughout. The most credible allegations include an affair with Playboy model <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trump-a-playboy-model-and-a-system-for-concealing-infidelity-national-enquirer-karen-mcdougal" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Karen McDougal</a> in June 2006 and another with adult film star <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/porn-star-stormy-daniels-sues-trump-over-hush-agreement-2018-3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Stormy Daniels</a> in July 2006. Both of these affairs allegedly took place only months after the birth of his fifth child, Barron Trump. Trump has denied both allegations, but the latter scandal made headlines when in 2018, <em>The Wall Street Journal</em> revealed that Stormy Daniels received $130,000 for signing a non-disclosure agreement just before the 2016 presidential election about her alleged affair with Trump.</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-147"></div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent4 - longest_content --></p><h3>Trump is an absent father.</h3><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDYzNjA0OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NjM2MjA0OX0.PUdNdVH0u35Fc3guB3uDnI4IHP8Ru78UwPQmLIhzTT4/img.jpg?width=980" id="b8fd1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e98c378d20c94ee1c2859566b2019e55" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="The Trump family all sitting in separate gilded chairs looking solemn" data-width="620" data-height="372">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">The Trump family</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images</small></p><p>Trump has 5 kids from his three wives, but wasn't involved much in their upbringing. His first three children were raised mostly by nannies and bodyguards. Don Jr. refers to his nanny as "<a href="https://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/others/donald-trump-s-sons-pay-tribute-to-the-irish-nannies-who-raised-them" target="_blank">the woman who raised us</a>" and Eric Trump, the youngest of the three, claims that in a way he was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/21/arts/21iht-trump.3611735.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">really raised</a> by his brother Don Jr. His fourth child, Tiffany, <a href="https://eliteherald.com/news-and-politics/politics/things-about-tiffany-trump-that-the-donald-doesnt-want-you-to-know/18/" target="_blank">wasn't raised by Trump</a> at all, but thousands of miles away in Los Angeles with her mother Marla Maples. Trump has <a href="https://people.com/politics/fathers-day-donald-trump-quotes-raising-children/" target="_blank">openly expressed</a> that he has no interest in the child-rearing aspects of being a father. On the Howard Stern show in 2005, <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/andrewkaczynski/donald-trump-thinks-men-who-change-diapers-are-acting-like-t" target="_blank">he stated</a>, "I mean, I won't do anything to take care of them... It's not like I'm gonna be walking the kids down Central Park."<br></p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-163"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent_5 - incontent_5 --></p><h3>Trump speaks very crudely about women.</h3><p>In September 2005, Trump was caught on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html?postshare=6361475870515092&tid=ss_tw" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tape</a> telling "Access Hollywood" host Billy Bush that he was able to "grab" women "by the p---y" because "when you're a star they let you do it." On the tape Trump also talks about actively pursuing a married woman. "I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn't get there. And she was married." The tape was recorded just a few months after Melania and Trump were married. While Trump claims that this was simply locker room banter and not proof that he was actively cheating on his new wife, it is certainly not the kind of rhetoric you want to hear from any newlywed father of four, let alone a President. </p><h3>Trump sexualized his own daughters.</h3><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDYzNjA3Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNDQxMTM5MH0.rbiqwHEgF7TTRIdKvftImaRCmxb7U7H9oHtACAapR94/img.jpg?width=980" id="597f4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4a9ad12dfff83c1809f3722e28014665" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Ivanka Trump on Donald Trump's lap as he holds her by the waist" data-width="1520" data-height="1857">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka in Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, FL, in 1996.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">
Brian Smith
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</p><p><br></p><p>One of Trump's most <a href="https://youtu.be/diMp241gAcw" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">notorious quotes</a> about his beautiful and refined daughter Ivanka is that "if Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her." Ivanka was 24 at the time and Trump was 60. But that isn't the only time he has sexualized his daughter. In another interview with Howard Stern in 2003, Trump said his daughter had "the best body." In yet another chat, Trump gave Stern <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/08/politics/trump-on-howard-stern/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the okay</a> to call Ivanka a "piece of ass." He even sexualized his daughter Tiffany when she was an infant. "I think that she's got a lot of Marla, she's really a beautiful baby," <a href="https://twitter.com/Travon/status/755581145970946049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E755581145970946049%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3%2Ccontainerclick_1&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bustle.com%2Fp%2Fvideo-of-trump-talking-about-tiffanys-legs-chest-when-she-was-a-baby-has-resurfaced-10239284" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Trump said</a>. "She's got Marla's legs. We don't know whether or not she's got this part yet but time will tell," he added, holding his hands in front of his chest to represent breasts. Because who doesn't want to talk about their infant daughter's future breasts?</p><p><div id="ezoic-pub-ad-placeholder-164"> </div>
<!-- End Ezoic - incontent_6 - incontent_6 --></p><p>Donald Trump is not a family values candidate. His history shows that he has no respect for the institution of family—except when it serves him and his business. Trump doesn't care about the things that make the Republican Party great.<br></p><p>But don't take my word for it. Real Republicans, the ones who care about family values, agree with me:</p><p><strong>Republican voters against Trump <a href="https://rvat.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://rvat.org/</a></strong></p><p><strong>The Lincoln Project <a href="https://lincolnproject.us/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://lincolnproject.us/</a></strong></p><p><strong>The Bravery Project <a href="https://thebraveryproject.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://thebraveryproject.com/</a></strong></p><p><strong>Reclaim Our Party <a href="https://www.reclaimourparty.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.reclaimourparty.org/</a></strong></p><p><strong>Christians Against Trumpism <a href="https://christiansagainsttrumpism.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://christiansagainsttrumpism.com/</a></strong></p><p><strong>43 Alumni For Joe Biden <a href="https://43alumniforjoebiden.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://43alumniforjoebiden.com/</a></strong></p><p><strong>Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform <a href="https://repair45.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://repair45.org/</a></strong></p><p><strong>Republicans for Rule of law <a href="https://www.ruleoflawrepublicans.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.ruleoflawrepublicans.com/</a></strong></p><h3></h3><p><strong>Former Republican National Security Officials for Biden </strong><a href="https://www.defendingdemocracytogether.org/national-security/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>https://www.defendingdemocracytogether.org/national-security/</strong></a></p>
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