Former First Lady Melania Trump was reportedly more upset by ex-Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal’s alleged affair with former President Donald Trump than by the Stormy Daniels saga, according to CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins. During CNN’s coverage of the “Trump Hush Money Trial,” Collins discussed how the testimony of former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker shed light on the alleged relationship between Trump and McDougal, as well as the cover-up to prevent the story from affecting Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Collins explained that while Stormy Daniels’ relationship with Trump was transactional and limited to a few encounters, McDougal’s alleged affair was more personal and long-lasting, which contributed to Melania Trump’s discontent. The depth of the relationship with McDougal, who claimed to have had a year-long relationship with Trump, likely had a more significant impact on the former First Lady than the brief involvement with Daniels.
Chief legal correspondent Paula Reid added that McDougal’s account of the affair suggested a romantic relationship that involved traveling together and was more intimate in nature. This aspect made it understandable why it would cause tension and frustration for Melania Trump and why Trump would prefer to keep the story hidden.
Collins also noted that David Pecker’s testimony highlighted the efforts made to cover up the story, with emissaries being sent to meet with McDougal to negotiate a “catch and kill” arrangement to suppress the story, preventing it from becoming public during the campaign.
KAITLAN COLLINS: And obviously this is going to be a really sensitive moment in this trial, which is how personal this will be for Donald Trump.
Karen McDougal is one of the most personal parts of this because she alleged not only that they had an affair, she said they had a relationship.
And this was something that when, I know from covering the White House and covering Melania Trump, it was deeply upsetting for the first, the former first lady, Melania Trump, and it created a rift in the relationship between her and Donald Trump.
Everyone talks about Stormy Daniels and yes, that certainly was there as well. But Karen McDougal I, we were told at the time, agitated Melania Trump more so, actually, than Stormy Daniels had.
PAULA REID: And you can understand that because the Stormy Daniels relationship and she says publicly in her new documentary, it appeared to be quite transactional. There were some sexual encounters, but she kept up the relationship, talking to him because she wanted to be on The Apprentice.
And once it’s clear that wasn’t going to happen, she sort of dropped him.
The Karen McDougal — as she tells the story, it was, you know, from her viewpoint, a romantic relationship that went on for some time, traveling together. It was much more of an intimate relationship, again, according to her account of events.
So it’s completely understanding why that would be frustrating and annoying to Melania and something that Trump would not want out in the public.
KAITLAN COLLINS: Yeah. And David Pecker says that Howard, who as a reminder, was the editor in chief of the National Enquirer, called him in June 2016, a notable month and year, obviously, about a Playboy model who is trying to sell a story about a relationship that she had with Donald Trump for a year.
As I noted, it was a longer relationship, not just simply a one time affair. Jake, obviously, this is a critical moment here in this, because this is one of the key stories that they can zoom in on that. David Pecker has an immense amount of knowledge about. I mean, they sent emissaries to go and meet directly with Karen McDougal about this story.
JAKE TAPPER: Right. So this is a catch and kill story that, there seems to be more grounds to believe it to be true than the doorman’s story.
