Opinion | What the reaction to Trump’s ‘affair’ with Stormy Daniels tells us about US attitudes to sex

Robert Delaney says whether Americans are learning to keep the personal out of the political, or Republicans are practising blatant double standards on marital fidelity, Trump has maintained steady approval ratings during rumours of his alleged affair

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US President Donald Trump bows his head while US Vice-President Mike Pence (right), faith leaders and evangelical ministers pray in the White House in Washington on September 1. Trump’s evangelical supporters have largely continued to support him, despite allegations of affairs. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 2:30pm, 2 Apr 2018Updated: 7:49pm, 2 Apr 2018

There’s a history of marital indiscretion among many occupants of the Oval Office. Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy, Warren G. Harding …

The details about US President Donald Trump’s alleged activities with Stephanie Clifford – a.k.a “Stormy Daniels” – only deepen our understanding that powerful men often get some on the side.

That Trump may have had sex with a porn star, a Playboy centrefold, and possibly others while married, makes the issue more salacious, but doesn’t make him different from most other married men in the US.

Estimates compiled by The Washington Post several years ago “find married men cheating at rates between 25 per cent and 72 per cent. Given that many people are loath to admit that they cheat, research on cheating may underestimate its prevalence. But it appears that cheating is as common as fidelity.”

It is no wonder, then, that the bedroom scandals swirling around Trump have not undercut his support. The weekly Gallup poll shows Trump’s approval rating at the end of March unchanged from a month earlier, at 39 per cent.

Sleeping around with sexually objectified women would not be inconsistent with what everyone in the US knows about Trump, opponents and supporters alike. Trump has cultivated his image as a playboy for decades. Therefore, what might seem like bombshell revelations in the matter of Stormy Daniels are really just firecrackers.

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