TRUMP IS SCUM, BUT SOME OF THE EVIDENCE OF HIS SCUMMINESS IS FAKE

Yesterday I san an unsettling pair of pictures in a couple of Reddit threads, one of which bore the headline "Trump kissing a teenage model in the 90s":

The first photo is real. It appears in this 2020 Guardian story and shows Trump -- in 1991, the year he turned 45 -- talking to a contestant in Elite Model Management's Look of the Year contest. The contestant looks very young -- it's not clear how young, but she was probably a teenager.

While Elite’s official brochure stated that contestants were aged between 14 and 24, all of those the Guardian has spoken to, competing in both years [1991 and 1992], were aged between 14 and 19.

The contest was the subject of a televised documentary.

In 1991 and 1992, the Elite contest was filmed for a 60-minute glossy television special, featuring interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, and later screened on Fox....

The 1992 Fox documentary reported that the average age was 15....

But the second photo of Trump and this contestant in the Guardian story was this:

A fact check from Lead Stories confirms that the kiss photo is fake. Yet we know that Trump has kissed at least one beauty pageant contestant on the lips -- Temple Taggart McDowell, Miss Utah 1997 -- because she told NBC News about it.



The Guardian story depicts some very sketchy behavior on Trump's part, and shows Trump consorting with men who are alleged to have committed sex crimes.

On 1 September 1991, a large private yacht cruised towards the Statue of Liberty.... Downstairs, a party was in flow. Scores of teenage girls in evening dresses and miniskirts, some as young as 14, danced under disco lights. It could have been a high school prom, were it not for the crowd of older men surrounding them.

As the evening wore on, some of the men – many old enough to be the girls’ fathers, or even grandfathers – joined them on the dancefloor, pressing themselves against the girls. One balding man in a suit wrapped his arms around two young models, leering into a film camera that was documenting the evening: “Can you get some beautiful women around me, please?”

The party aboard the Spirit of New York was one of several events that Donald Trump, then 45, attended with a group of 58 aspiring young models that September. They had travelled from around the world to compete in Elite’s Look of the Year competition....

In 1991, he was a headline sponsor, throwing open the Plaza, his lavish, chateau-style hotel overlooking Central Park, transforming it into the main venue and accommodating the young models. He was also one of its 10 judges.

In 1992, Trump hosted the competition again.

... the Guardian has spoken to several dozen former Look of the Year contestants, as well as industry insiders, and obtained 12 hours of previously unseen, behind-the-scenes footage. The stories we have heard suggest that Casablancas, and some of the men in his orbit, used the contest to engage in sexual relationships with vulnerable young models. Some of these allegations amount to sexual harassment, abuse or exploitation of teenage girls; others are more accurately described as rape.

But the kiss photo is fake, and it's not the only dubious item about Trump I found at Reddit yesterday. Another Redditor posted a thread with the headline

Reminder that Trump literally ran a 'high class' escort service, promising an experience 'exactly like a date with any girlfriend or loving wife'.

There's a link to an archived web page with this promotional copy:

Trump International offers elite, discreet and well bred travel companions to accompany you on your business trip, vacation or tour to any major city worldwide. (Five star only) Most of the travel companions are experienced, confident travelers, and they are all able to accommodate the trip with a calm, cheerful attitude....

Our ultimate aim is to ensure both you and the model have a wonderful, beautiful experience together. To help select the most appropriate model to join you, we'll consult with you about your preferences, and ensure your perfect woman is available....

These are first class companions in every way, carefully selected for you. And we don't just say ‘carefully selected’ lightly; Our applicants are taken through a rigorous selection and interview process to ensure they possess the minimum quality requirements we expect, based on our clients’ expectations.

But as Philip Bump reported in The Washington Post in 2016, the company promting itself as Trump Escorts had no connection to Trump -- the domain name had been registered to an Australian company called Bestcom International since 2007, the mailing address appeared to match a Trump property but was incorrect, and by the time of Bump's investigation, the escort agency had changed its name to Mystique Companions.

If there'd actually been a Trump escort agency, we'd know about it. I no longer believe that it would have been enough to prevent him from winning the presidency, but we'd at least know some details about it. Its activities would have been reported.

Donald Trump is a degenerate, but I don't believe that fake evidence of his degeneracy will help bring him to justice. There's a chance that it will discredit legitimate evidence. Never doubt that Trump is a horrible person, but approach stories about his past with some skepticism.