Accusations of President-elect Donald Trump having an affair aren't exactly shocking; there are plenty to go around. But what makes the latest resurfaced rumor a big surprise is the who far more than the what.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00Accusations of President-elect Donald Trump having an affair aren't exactly shocking.
00:04There are plenty to go around, but what makes the latest resurfaced rumor a big surprise
00:09is the who far more than the what. In his decades in the public eye,
00:13the former and soon-to-be president has been linked to quite a few women who weren't his
00:17three wives. The most headline-grabbing is probably his alleged affair with adult film
00:21actress Stormy Daniels while he was married to his current wife, Melania Trump. After all,
00:26Donald went to trial for, and was convicted, in connection with the hush money scheme to pay
00:30Daniels off. But the president-elect also reportedly had a scandalous affair with a
00:34Playboy model while his then-fiancée Marla Maples was expecting their daughter, Tiffany Trump.
00:39Before that, Maples herself was Donald's mistress when he was still married to his
00:42first wife, Ivana Trump.
00:44Well, you were very public about the fact that you
00:47were seeing Ms. Maples when you were still married to Ivana Trump, no?
00:51No, I don't think I was public about it.
00:53There are quite a few more stories, but the one journalist J.K. Trotter has recently attempted
00:58to unravel in a lengthy Substack article is particularly juicy because it involves
01:02talk show host Tamron Hall. In 2016, during Trump's initial bid for the presidency,
01:07whispers began to swirl that he'd had a relationship with Hall, which resulted in
01:10a terminated pregnancy. But news outlets held off on covering the story when they
01:14couldn't confirm it with definitive proof. In February 2017, Hall abruptly left her slot on
01:20NBC's Today show. Sources told People and other outlets at the time that she was upset
01:24over losing her prime morning slot to incomer Megyn Kelly, but columnist A.J. Benza, formerly
01:29of the New York Daily News, begged to differ. On an L.A. radio talk show, citing unnamed sources,
01:34Benza claimed there was ample evidence Trump dated Hall in 2012. Among other things,
01:39he apparently sent her emails gushing,
01:41"'I love you' and allowed her to use his personal discount at Gucci.
01:44The emergence of those emails are what Benza said led to her departure,
01:48which was really a face-saving dismissal."
01:50Trotter quoted Benza as saying,
01:52"'I'm thinking more along the lines of, does NBC want to be embarrassed again?
01:55NBC feels a little guilty, looking back at The Apprentice.
01:58They don't want one more piece of embarrassment.'"
02:00"'I'd love to talk to you a little bit later about the economy, the improved job numbers,
02:04some of the jobs that have added, and what you would do. So hopefully we'll get you back.'"
02:07"'I would love that. Thank you.'"
02:08Months later, an anonymous podcaster ran a segment repeating Benza's claims. This got
02:13enough traction to catch some attention, but again, without hard evidence, it wasn't widely
02:17covered. Observers have obviously poured over Hall's on-screen behavior for any tells of her
02:22alleged affair with Donald. She's done her best to remain neutral, it seems. Her self-titled talk
02:26show launched in 2019, but it notably covered lifestyle issues rather than politics. Her
02:31account on X, formerly known as Twitter, made absolutely no mention of Trump's 2024 re-election
02:36campaign or his victory. Some might interpret this as just a personal choice, but Trotter
02:41read slightly more into it. The distancing, he argued, implies that Hall was possibly made to
02:46sign a nondisclosure agreement when she left NBC. On another substack discussing the article,
02:51Jessica Reid Krause's House Inhabit followers dismissed Trotter's bombshell as a dud,
02:55claiming that the timing was highly suspect. It was notably posted on October 29,
03:002024, just a week before Election Day.
03:02As of the making of this video, Trotter hasn't updated or added to his post since the election,
03:07and it almost goes without saying that neither the president-elect nor Hall have said anything
03:11about it. It'll remain to be seen whether, during Donald Trump's second term in office,
03:16this scandal will follow him or go back to collecting dust like so
03:19many other of his scandals have done over the past 40 years or so.