Cohen claims Trump said of affair allegations: ‘Guys may think it's cool.’ Which guys?

Donald Trump, according to under-oath testimony from Michael Cohen, his former attorney and fixer, was worried the story of his alleged affair with Stormy Daniels would be “a disaster for the campaign” and make women hate him.

But even as Trump pondered the potential scandal of a tryst with an adult film star, he was oafish and egotistical enough to say, according to Cohen: “Guys may think it’s cool.”

That comment, which Trump is welcome to deny if he’d like to take the stand and do so under oath, has little, if anything, to do with the core of the case against the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee. The case is about election interference — a hush money payment it is alleged was intended to keep the American people from learning sordid details of a presidential candidate before the election.

But those words — “Guys may think it’s cool” — tell us a hell of a lot about the guy trying to again become president of the United States.

What kind of guy would think Trump's alleged affair with Stormy Daniels was cool?

I’m a guy — in good standing — and there isn’t an ounce of me that thinks another guy having sex with an adult film star months after his wife gave birth to their child is cool.

If one of my married friends shared a similar story, my response wouldn’t be: “Awesome! Nice work, dude.”

Trump's lazy lies: Trump's followers believe his every lie. But if he was a real alpha-male, he'd lie BIGGER.

It would be: “You’re an (expletive). What were you thinking?”

How broken does your man-brain have to be to think the average American guy would read about a presidential candidate who had sex with a 27-year-old adult film star when he was 60 — and married! — and think that whole scenario was “cool”?

Was Trump allegedly suggesting his MAGA base is pro-infidelity?

Who, exactly, are the guys Trump was allegedly referring to?

Was he talking about the guys who make up his loyal MAGA base? Does he think they all would jump at the chance to cheat on their wives with a porn star?

Was he talking about the pious guys in his evangelical base? Is it Trump’s belief that they’re pro-infidelity? The sanctity-of-marriage guys?

Trump trial testimony: Stormy Daniels spills details about alleged Trump affair. How will they spin this one?

Is it the older wealthy donors who poured money into Trump’s 2016 campaign coffers who the former president thought would get a kick out of his tale of a lurid affair with a much younger woman? Is it only billionaires who find such loutish behavior “cool”?

Trump could clear things up by taking the stand in the Stormy Daniels case

We can’t know for sure, and Trump would certainly deny ever making the comment, the same way he denies he lost the 2020 election and anything that makes him look bad. Cohen is a noted liar, but in this contest of liar vs. liar, my money is on the guy under oath, not the guy who does everything possible to avoid being under oath.

The most likely possibility is that the plural “guys” Trump was referencing were, in fact, the singular “him.” He’s a narcissist, after all. Why would we ever think he believes others can view the world differently than he does?

Maybe Trump thinks cheating on your wife is cool - most of us don't

It’s not hard for any of us to imagine Trump thinking a married guy having an affair with Stormy Daniels was cool. So he would naturally assume all other men think the same.

They don’t. And that’s what makes this small and alleged window into Trump’s small mind worth peering through, assuming you care about things like morals or faithfulness or decency.

Trump, it seems, thinks all guys are dirtbags like him.

I’m not a dirtbag.

Are you?

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cohen testimony: Trump said men might like Stormy Daniels story. Why?