トランプの２つの沈黙 － ストーミー、プーチン

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トランプの２つの沈黙　－　ストーミー、プーチン アメリカの出来事を聞いていて、不思議に思うことが２つある。 １つは、ストーミー・ダニエルズのCNN 60分番組、およびその後の彼女の弁護士アヴェナッティ (イタリア系アメリカ人) のツイートなどにたいし、トランプが、異常なほど、沈黙を続けているという点である。これは弁護士の忠告に従っているといううわさがあるが、トランプはそんなことに頓着しないで、ツイートで相手を倍返しで口撃する習性がある。唯一のツイートは、以下のもので、何の意味もないものである。セックス・スキャンダルまみれの本人が、But through it all, our country is doing great!　と、ツイートするのは、だれにもわけが分からないものである。　 Donald Trump did type out a vague “Fake News” tweet Monday morning, although it is unclear to what he was referring. “So much Fake News,” Trump wrote. “Never been more voluminous or more inaccurate. But through it all, our country is doing great!” いつまで沈黙を続けることができるのだろうか。だれしも関心をもつところである。 ＊＊＊ もう１点は、アメリカがロシアにたいし、ようやく制裁措置に踏み切ったという点である。トランプは議会が制裁を要求しても、拒否し続けてきた。トランプは、プーチンにたいしては異常なほど屈従的姿勢を示し続けてきており、一言もプーチンにたいし批判的なことを発したことはない。 　そのトランプがロシアにたいする制裁に許可を与えた、ということである。大統領の認可なくしてそれは不可能なことである。 　ところが、トランプはこの決定に対しては、本人は何の発言もしないままできている。ロシアの行為を政府として論難しているが、それはトランプの会見やツイッターからではなく、側近の閣僚などからの公式発言によってである。 　トランプはいまでもプーチンについてはもちろん、ロシアが報復的制裁を言明しても、それにたいし何の発言もしないままである。この異常な状態、アメリカ政府は激しくロシアの行為を非難しているのに、そのトップはそのことについて何の発言もしないままできているという異常な状態が、温存されたままである。元CIA長官のブレナンのトランプ批判は非常に激しいものがあるのだが、彼いわく「個人的にか、トランプはプーチンに頭が上がらない something をもっている」と。この見解は多くのコメンテーターによって共有されているものでもある（もちろんフォックス・ニュースは異なるが。最近、Alex Jonesはトランプ支持を辞める宣言をしている。熱烈なトランプ支持の放送をつづけてきていた人物である）。 ＊＊＊ Trump stays silent on Twitter about Stormy Daniels affair allegations — so far For now, it appears that the President is listening to his advisers’ warnings on the dangers of speaking out about women who have said they had affairs with Trump while he was married to Melania. U.S. President Donald Trump waved to reporters as he returned to the White House on Sunday but ignored questions about whether he would watch Stormy Daniels' interview on 60 Minutes and the fate of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin. (The Associated Press) By MICHAEL D. SHEARThe New York Times MAGGIE HABERMAN Tues., March 27, 2018 WASHINGTON—After 61 weeks in the White House, President Donald Trump has found two people he won’t attack on Twitter: Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. The verbose commander in chief has posted more than 2,900 times on Twitter since taking office, using the term “FAKE NEWS” to describe everything from the Russia inquiry and allegations of chaos in the White House to harassment accusations, the size of his inaugural crowds and heated arguments with world leaders. But he has been uncharacteristically silent in recent days — to the relief of his advisers — as a pornographic film star and a Playboy model described intimate details of sexual encounters with Trump. Stephanie Clifford, known in pornographic films as Stormy Daniels, said Sunday night on CBS’ 60 Minutes that she once spanked the president with a copy of Forbes magazine bearing his face on the cover. The fact that the president has not given oxygen to the headlines, however, does not mean that he is content. Inside the White House, Trump is eager to defend himself against allegations that he insists are false, those close to him say. And he is growing increasingly frustrated with breathless, wall-to-wall news media coverage of the salacious details from the two women. On Monday, Clifford’s lawyer added new charges to the suit she filed: that the president’s lawyer defamed Clifford in denying her claims; that he and Trump pursued the deal to specifically help Trump’s election prospects; and that he then structured the agreement to shield from public view what was, effectively, an illegal $130,000 campaign gift. Stephanie Clifford, known in pornographic films as Stormy Daniels, said Sunday night on CBS’ 60 Minutes that she once spanked the president with a copy of Forbes magazine bearing his face on the cover. (CBS NEWS/60 MINUTES / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS) In discussions with allies and some aides, Trump has privately railed against Clifford, and insisted that she is not telling the truth. He has reminded advisers that he joined an effort to enforce financial penalties against Clifford, whose TV interview Sunday night was hyped throughout the weekend on the cable news channels that Trump watches obsessively. But there has been no debate among Trump’s advisers about the best course for him: just keep quiet about a story that would only be fuelled by a presidential tweet or a comment about the women shouted above the roar of Marine One. Keeping a lid on Trump is never easy, especially when he is eager to hit back at his adversaries. In the days after an Access Hollywood video exposed his own lewd comments about women during the final month of the campaign, Trump responded by showing up at his debate with Hillary Clinton with three women who had accused Bill Clinton of sexual improprieties. Five takeaways from Stormy Daniels’s ‘60 Minutes’ interview Trump doesn’t believe Stormy Daniels’ claim she was threatened, White House says Stormy Daniels says threats had kept her quiet about alleged affair with Trump As a candidate, and as president, Trump has eagerly attacked just about all of his enemies and accusers, often with colourful nicknames like “Little Rocket Man” for the North Korean leader, “Crazy Joe Biden” or “Sloppy Steve” Bannon. But for now, it appears that the president is listening to — and accepting — his advisers’ warnings on the dangers of speaking out about the women, much the way he followed the advice of his lawyers for a year not to attack Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the Russia inquiry. Adult film star Stormy Daniels says an unidentified man threatened her to keep quiet about her alleged relationship with Donald Trump. Daniels also told CBS' "60 Minutes" she had one encounter of consensual sex with the future U.S. President. (The Associated Press) Recently, he has ditched that advice, attacking Mueller and his team directly on Twitter. That leaves only his alleged mistresses and President Vladimir Putin of Russia as people who are immune to Trump’s Twitter trash-talk. Raj Shah, a Deputy White House Press Secretary, declined to say “what the President may or may not have seen” on television Sunday night, though he said that Trump denies the allegations that Clifford made in the CBS interview. “I’ll just say that he’s consistently denied these allegations,” Shah said. “The president doesn’t believe that any of the claims that Ms. Daniels made last night in the interview are accurate.” Trump dined at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Saturday evening with Michael D. Cohen, his lawyer and longtime aide who is at the centre of the Clifford scandal, according to three people familiar with the get-together. The president scheduled the meeting himself, surprising his aides with it a short time before Cohen arrived, people familiar with the meeting said. Melania Trump, too, has been silent about the allegations. Asked to react to the interviews, Stephanie Grisham, Melania Trump’s spokeswoman, said: “She’s focusing on being a mother, she’s quite enjoying her spring break and she’s focused on future projects.” It is not clear whether Donald Trump watched a similar tell-all interview on CNN Thursday evening, when Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, alleged a 10-month romantic affair with Trump in which they repeatedly had sex. Sunday’s interview with Clifford contained few surprises but some humiliating details, such as Clifford saying she was not attracted to Trump, and her recollection of spanking him. Virility and strength are key traits that the president likes to project, and he once gloated about a New York Post headline quoting a friend of his second wife, Marla Maples, who recalled Maples saying that Trump was the “Best Sex I’ve Ever Had.” In the interview, Clifford said that she had flirted with Trump in 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. She said Trump had compared her favourably to his daughter during the flirtation, and that she had intercourse with Trump. She also alleged that an unknown person whom she believed to be connected to Trump and Cohen threatened her in a parking lot in 2011, telling her, “Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.” Then looking at her infant daughter, he added, “That’s a beautiful little girl. It would be a shame if something happened to her mom.” Asked by Anderson Cooper whether she had anything to say to Trump, if he was watching Sunday night, Clifford said: “He knows I’m telling the truth.” Even that has not prompted Trump to directly address the central allegations from Clifford and McDougal — that the president cheated on his wife shortly after Melania Trump gave birth to their son. Donald Trump did type out a vague “Fake News” tweet Monday morning, although it is unclear to what he was referring. “So much Fake News,” Trump wrote. “Never been more voluminous or more inaccurate. But through it all, our country is doing great!” Beyond the details of their alleged encounters, Trump’s advisers have been urging the president to keep quiet about the legal wrangling concerning Clifford and McDougal. McDougal, who accepted $150,000 from the parent company of the National Enquirer to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump, is suing the company to be released from the contract. Cohen has acknowledged paying Clifford $130,000 in the days before the 2016 election to keep quiet about her allegations. Shah said at the White House on Monday that “I can say categorically that, obviously, the White House didn’t engage in any wrongdoing.” Asked about why Trump’s lawyer would pay Clifford $130,000 if her allegations were false, Shah said that “false charges are settled out of court all the time.” He referred further questions about the case to Cohen. The lawyer for Clifford has aggressively argued that his client is not bound by the nondisclosure agreement that she signed, in part because Trump himself never signed the document. Michael Avenatti, the lawyer, has repeatedly used Trumplike insinuations to suggest that Clifford has digital evidence of the intercourse. “We have a litany of more evidence in this case, and it’s going to be disclosed, and it’s going to be laid bare for the American public,” Avenatti said in an interview Monday morning on ABC’s Good Morning America. Last week, Avenatti tweeted a picture of a CD or DVD with the suggestive caption: “If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is this worth???? #60minutes #pleasedenyit #basta.” Even that has not prompted a presidential retort — yet. Read more about: United States, Donald Trump ＊＊＊ Tough Action on Russia, at Last, but More Is Needed By THE EDITORIAL BOARDMARCH 26, 2018 By expelling scores of Russians from the United States and 21 othercountries, President Trump and allied leaders have imposed the most significant punishment yet on Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin. It’s a move that is well overdue for Mr. Trump, whose long refusal to criticize Mr. Putin and hesitancy to act against Russia’s malign behavior have raised suspicions that Moscow knows secrets it could use to blackmail the American president. Monday’s development offers some hope that Mr. Trump may finally be forced to deal with the threat that Mr. Putin poses to the United States and its Western allies. Put the emphasis there on “hope.” Mr. Trump will have to go even further to push back effectively against Mr. Putin’s mischief, which runs the gamut from interference in the elections in America and other Western democracies to propelling the wars in Ukraine and Syria. The expulsion orders retaliate specifically for the poisoning of a former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter in Britain, for which the Kremlin has been blamed. On the American side, it includes 12 people identified as Russian intelligence officers at the United Nations in New York and 48 at the Russian Embassy in Washington. Also, the Russian consulate in Seattle will be closed because of concerns that Russians were spying on a nearby submarine base and Boeing manufacturing facilities. Mr. Putin almost certainly will retaliate, continuing a downward spiral in Russian-American relations unheard-of since the Cold War. That will further disrupt the ability of the two nations to work on serious challenges, like ending the war in Syria and defusing a new nuclear arms race. It appears to be getting more difficult for Mr. Trump to remain passive in the face of Russian aggression. On March 15, he imposed sanctions on a series of Russian organizations and individuals for interference in the 2016 presidential election and other “malicious cyberattacks.” Yet, the president still panders to Mr. Putin, even as he intensifies criticism of the special counsel, Robert Mueller, and the former F.B.I. director’s investigation into Trump associates’ web of Russian ties. The most recent example occurred last week when Mr. Trump, who has infrequent calls with the leaders of America’s closest allies, made a point of calling Mr. Putin to congratulate him on his recent fraudulent re-election. Missing from the call was any scolding for the nerve-gas attack on the Russian spy that prompted Monday’s expulsions or any demand that Mr. Putin stop meddling in American elections. Even now, Mr. Trump is distancing himself from the expulsion order issued in his name, underscoring the incoherence in his approach. Rather than being introduced with powerful words from the president, the decision was announced in a White House statement saying the actions “make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences.” The United States and its allies must stay united in condemning Mr. Putin’s nefarious activities and holding him to account. The expulsions show Russia will pay a price for using chemical weapons on allied territory. But Mr. Trump has still not done much to counter Mr. Putin’s most dangerous initiative — meddling in the 2016 election and the coming November midterms. No, it will be impossible to see this administration as taking the threat seriously until Mr. Trump orders, at long last, a comprehensive campaign to repair weaknesses in the American electoral system and prevent tampering in future elections. He should also sanction Russian oligarchs — freezing their assets, barring them from the global banking system, preventing their children from attending Western schools — ensuring that Mr. Putin’s cronies feel America’s reach and use their influence to stop his aggression. Correction: March 27, 2018 An earlier version of this editorial referred incorrectly to a facility being closed in Seattle. It is the Russian, not American, consulate. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTOpinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter. A version of this editorial appears in print on March 27, 2018, on Page A20 of the New York edition with the headline: More Action Is Needed on Russia.