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Daily Beast: Trump’s Attorney Denies Marital Rape Exists, Threatens Reporter

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A bombshell report by The Daily Beast offers a glimpse into Donald Trump’s marriage to Ivana, and his bullying lawyer who reportedly threatened a journalist.

Editor’s note: See update at the bottom

Monday night The Daily Beast published a story, “Ex-Wife: Donald Trump Made Me Feel ‘Violated’ During Sex,” that is shocking on so many levels.

In the early ’90s, during a divorce deposition, Ivana Trump, who married Donald in 1977, said he raped her, and that once during sex she felt violently assaulted, The Daily Beast reports, citing a 1993 book, Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump.

Daily Beast reporters Tim Mak and Brandy Zadrozny write that “Ivana Trump once used ‘rape’ to describe an incident between them in 1989. She later said she felt ‘violated’ by the experience.”

Michael Cohen, special counsel at The Trump Organization, defended his boss, saying, “You’re talking about the frontrunner for the GOP, presidential candidate, as well as a private individual who never raped anybody. And, of course, understand that by the very definition, you can’t rape your spouse.”

“It is true,” Cohen added. “You cannot rape your spouse. And there’s very clear case law.”

Actually, marital rape is actually legally recognized. A spouse can rape his or her spouse, and the courts do recognize it as rape.

“Marital rape today is illegal in all 50 states and non-consensual sex between spouses does in fact constitute rape,” CNN reports in an article about the Daily Beast story.

The Daily Beast continues:

The book, by former Texas Monthly and Newsweek reporter Harry Hurt III, described a harrowing scene. After a painful scalp reduction surgery to remove a bald spot, Donald Trump confronted his then-wife, who had previously used the same plastic surgeon.

“Your fucking doctor has ruined me!” Trump cried.

What followed was a “violent assault,” according to Lost Tycoon. Donald held back Ivana’s arms and began to pull out fistfuls of hair from her scalp, as if to mirror the pain he felt from his own operation. He tore off her clothes and unzipped his pants.

“Then he jams his penis inside her for the first time in more than sixteen months. Ivana is terrified… It is a violent assault,” Hurt writes. “According to versions she repeats to some of her closest confidantes, ‘he raped me.’”

In researching the story, the reporters reached out to Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen, special counsel at The Trump Organization, who just last night appeared on CNN as his spokesperson. What followed is stunning.

“I will make sure that you and I meet one day while we’re in the courthouse. And I will take you for every penny you still don’t have. And I will come after your Daily Beast and everybody else that you possibly know,” Cohen said. “So I’m warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I’m going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting. You understand me?”

“You write a story that has Mr. Trump’s name in it, with the word ‘rape,’ and I’m going to mess your life up… for as long as you’re on this frickin’ planet… you’re going to have judgments against you, so much money, you’ll never know how to get out from underneath it,” he added.

Later in the Daily Beast article, more from Trump’s attorney:

Cohen, Trump’s attorney, said that “there is nothing reasonable about you wanting to write a story about somebody’s usage of the word ‘rape,’ when she’s talking [about how] she didn’t feel emotionally satisfied.”

“Though there’s many literal senses to the word, if you distort it, and you put Mr. Trump’s name there onto it, rest assured, you will suffer the consequences. So you do whatever you want. You want to ruin your life at the age of 20? You do that, and I’ll be happy to serve it right up to you,” he added.

“I think you should go ahead and you should write the story that you plan on writing. I think you should do it. Because I think you’re an idiot. And I think your paper’s a joke, and it’s going to be my absolute pleasure to serve you with a $500 million lawsuit, like I told [you] I did it to Univision,” Cohen continued.

The Daily Beast reporters note:

When Lost Tycoon was about to be printed, Donald Trump and his lawyers provided a statement from Ivana, which was posted on the first page of the book. In it, Ivana confirms that she had “felt violated” and that she had stated that her husband had raped her during a divorce deposition. But Ivana sought to soften her earlier statement.

“During a deposition given by me in connection with my matrimonial case, I stated that my husband had raped me,” the Ivana Trump statement said. “[O]n one occasion during 1989, Mr. Trump and I had marital relations in which he behaved very differently toward me than he had during our marriage. As a woman, I felt violated, as the love and tenderness, which he normally exhibited towards me, was absent. I referred to this as a ‘rape,’ but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.”

ABC News producer John Santucci late Monday night reported this from the Trump campaign:

 

UPDATE:
Ivana Trump Defends Ex-Husband Donald Over Daily Beast’s Sexual Violation Story

 

This article has been updated to include the CNN reference.

Image by iprimages via Flickr and a CC license
Hat tip: Raw Story and Little Green Footballs

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News

Trump: ‘We’re Bringing Back God’

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January 23, 2026

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President Donald Trump delivered a forceful message to attendees at the March for Life rally in Washington, D.C.

In pre-recorded remarks, the president told the anti-abortion gathering, “under the Trump administration, we’re strongly defending religious liberty, we’re bringing back faith in America.”

“We bringing back God,” Trump declared.

Having praised the end of the constitutional right to abortion, Trump said, “the work to rebuild a culture that supports life continues in every state, every community, and every part of our beautiful land.”

“This is a battle that must be fought, must be won, not only in the corridors of power, but, above all, in the hearts and souls of the people,” he continued, suggesting a desire to end all abortion in the United States.

“We have stopped forced taxpayer funding of abortion at home and abroad, we’re championing faith-based adoption and foster care, and supporting our parents by investing $1,000 into an account that will grow over time for every newborn baby.”

READ MORE: ‘Good Chance’ Trump Will Be Electorally ‘Humiliated’ in November: Carville

Vice President JD Vance told attendees, “let the record show you have a vice president who practices what he preaches,” before announcing that he and his wife Usha are expecting their fourth child, as Fox News reported. “And it will be our third baby boy. So, we’ll take whatever prayers you can give. We certainly need them.”

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson also spoke at the rally, declaring that Republican policies “support” American families.

“Republicans are working hard to deliver on the mandate you gave us in the last election, to make it easier than ever before, to raise a family in this great country of ours. And because we know that support for American families doesn’t end at birth, our policies reflect this.”

Critics challenged Johnson’s claim.

Health care activist Melanie D’Arrigo remarked that Republicans offer no universal health care, paid family leave, universal childcare, a living wage as a minimum wage, affordable housing, or tuition-free public college, but, she said, they have rolled back labor laws, gutted food assistance, and deregulated food safety.

READ MORE: Trump Promotes His Triumphal Arch as Millions Face Massive Storm

 

Image via Reuters 

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Trump Promotes His Triumphal Arch as Millions Face Massive Storm

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2 days ago

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January 23, 2026

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Americans in more than half the country are bracing for “hazardous ice, heavy snow and brutal cold” from a storm that a National Weather Service forecaster has predicted will be “crippling.” A potentially “catastrophic” ice storm is headed for the Southeast, and at least 14 states across the country have already declared a state of emergency.

The “potentially historic, massive winter storm will slam more than half of the United States today, moving east as it brings heavy snow, widespread ice accumulation and dangerous cold,” NBC News reported. “Up to a foot of snow is likely on the northern side of the system from Oklahoma to Massachusetts, according to the National Weather Service.”

About 1,300 flights have already been canceled ahead of the storm that is expected to hit 40 states across the nation.

Business Insider reported, “Americans strip store shelves bare as millions brace for a potentially historic storm.”

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on Friday morning took the opportunity to mock what he called “Environmental Insurrectionists,” as he asked, “whatever happened to global warming???”

READ MORE: ‘Blitzkrieg Against Public Opinion’: Columnist Calls Trump’s Agenda a ‘Cry for Help’

Hours later, Trump posted to Truth Social artist’s renderings of his Triumphal Arch, which he wants built in Washington, D.C, near the Lincoln Memorial — with a start date of sometime in February. He wants it completed by Independence Day for the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration.

“It hasn’t started yet. It starts sometime in the next two months. It’ll be great. Everyone loves it,” Trump told Politico in December. “They love the ballroom too. But they love the Triumphal Arch.”

Last month, President Trump revealed what the White House’s top domestic policy goal is. The president shared with attendees at a Sunday holiday party that the “primary thing” for the head of his Domestic Policy Council, Vince Haley, is building Trump’s dream arch in Washington, D.C.

“Vince is unbelievable on policy. And we have a policy thing that’s going to be unbelievable happening,” Trump said of the proposed arch, as The Daily Beast reported.

READ MORE: ‘Good Chance’ Trump Will Be Electorally ‘Humiliated’ in November: Carville

“It’s something that is so special. Uh, it will be like the one in, in Paris, but to be honest with you, it blows it away. Blows it away in every way,” Trump said. “And Vince came in one day and his eyes were teeming. I mean, he couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. He saw it and he wanted to do that. That’s your primary thing.”

Critics slammed the president for focusing on his arch while ordinary Americans are struggling.

Patriot Takes, a social media account with nearly half a million followers, blasted the president, sarcastically saying he “is laser focused on things that matter to the American people.”

READ MORE: Sean Duffy’s DC IndyCar Grand Prix Dream Is Stalling
Image via Reuters 

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‘Blitzkrieg Against Public Opinion’: Columnist Calls Trump’s Agenda a ‘Cry for Help’

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2 days ago

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January 23, 2026

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President Donald Trump’s coalition is “falling apart,” according to columnist Matt K. Lewis, who writes at The Hill that Trump’s list of accomplishments seems more like “a cry for help.”

Pointing to Trump’s rapid subject-changing, Lewis noted that the president kicked off the new year by invading Venezuela and capturing Nicolás Maduro.

“From there, things escalated briskly,” he wrote. “He defended an ICE agent who shot and killed a protester in Minneapolis named Renee Good. He threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act. He threatened to take Greenland — possibly by force. He threatened to slap tariffs on European allies over Greenland. He suggested his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize justified taking Greenland. And he almost failed to issue any acknowledgment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, waiting until bedtime to do so.”

Lewis says that while somewhere there is a “constituency” for each of these individual actions, “taken together, they resemble a blitzkrieg against public opinion.”

READ MORE: Sean Duffy’s DC IndyCar Grand Prix Dream Is Stalling

He summed up Trump’s low poll numbers and concluded, “America has seen this movie before, has been reminded of how it ends, and is already edging toward the exit.”

So, if the 2024 election held today, it’s “not at all clear” that Trump would win. he said, in part because “Trump’s winning coalition was so sprawling and incoherent that pleasing one group would automatically enrage another.”

So what’s happened in the past year?

“Trump is very good at campaigning and very bad at governing. This explains almost everything that has happened since he took office one year ago this week, including the nation’s rising consumption of Rolaids.”

Disappointment from the “newer members of his coalition” came from “the ultimate realization that Trump’s most electorally appealing promises — such as lowering grocery prices on day one — are never actually going to happen. Indeed, Trump’s policies — tariffs, for example — were almost custom-made to increase grocery prices, which is generally frowned upon by people who eat.”

As it turns out, “Trump’s true superpower … only works when he is not actually in charge.”

READ MORE: ‘Good Chance’ Trump Will Be Electorally ‘Humiliated’ in November: Carville

 

Image via Reuters 

 

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