One of the mysteries of Il Trumpe’s reaction to Stormy Daniels is that he really doesn’t want her to talk. It doesn’t really make sense, because, at this point, what can one more affair do to his reputation? And while the sex appears to have been less than exemplary, there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly salacious; in fact, it might lead to a small increase in abstinence (we kid. Sort of).

For whatever reason, this does bother him, and it seems increasingly clear that, if not l’affair Stormy, then something has compromised Trump deeply. I’m not talking about his nonexistent sense of decency, for there is no balm in Gilead for that sin-sick soul. No, it seems increasingly clear that Il Trumpe really is someone’s puppet (to use a phrase). A colleague reminded me of the GOP Platform fight over some making-very-nice with Russia language. It’s not like there was, at the time, a mass conservative pro-Russia constituency (remember we’re talking about mid-2016, not March 2018); at the time, the Republican Party was mostly in the pro-Ukraine camp. Moreover, why would one waste time putting what was a pretty minor issue into the limelight?

In hindsight, it’s pretty clear the platform was a test for Il Trumpe: could he deliver on these sorts of things? It also made him complicit–once you take one dive, you’re implicated in all the other shit. It will probably be years, if not decades, from now before we untangle all of this, but someone owns his ass. And, ultimately, it’s not Stormy, even if she spanked it.