STRANGE TIMES

Playboy Cover Model Donald Trump Pivots On Porn, Signs Pledge

Businessman Donald Trump posed on the cover of Playboy. GOP nominee Trump has a very different take on porn.

A day after his team praised the nude photos of his wife that the New York Post published, Donald Trump promised to be tough on internet pornography.

The mogul signed a document called the Children’s Internet Safety Presidential Pledge, bemoaning “unfettered internet access by youth.” In signing the pledge, Trump also promised to “[g]ive serious consideration to appointing a Presidential Commission to examine the harmful public health impact of Internet pornography on youth, families and the American culture and the prevention of the sexual exploitation of children in the digital age.”

The document also noted that children can see porn on the internet, and cited a study from 2010 saying sexting is the sixth biggest health concern for American children.

“Children as young as 5 are imitating sex acts at school because they are allowed to stay up late and watch pornography,” the pledge also said.

The pledge was created by a group called Enough is Enough. Its site says it focuses on “raising public awareness about the dangers of Internet pornography,” as well as sexual predators who target children.

Trump’s newfound tough-on-porn stance is, well, interesting. The candidate posed on the cover of the March 1990 issue of Playboy, and has it framed in his Manhattan office. That was long before Playboy stopped running pictures naked women, and the issue he appears in depicts lots of vaginas.

A representative for Trump’s Chicago hotel said it provides adult content on pay-per-view channels. A spokesperson for the Trump hotel New York headquarters didn’t respond to a request for comment on whether sexually explicit content is available at other hotels.

Traditional Christian sexual morals have never been part of the Trump brand. In The Art of the Comeback, he boasted about sleeping with married women.

“If I told the real stories of my experiences with women, often seemingly very happily married and important women, this book would be a guaranteed best-seller,” he wrote.

More recently, Team Trump praised the New York Post for featuring a topless picture of Melania Trump on its front page—presumably where children could see it.

“THE OGLE OFFICE,” blared the tabloid’s headline, next to a picture of Melania Trump—then Melania Knauss—with nipples only obscured by two strategically placed, photoshopped stars.

Jason Miller, Trump’s senior communications advisor, told CNN on Sunday morning that Trump’s wife had “nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“They’re a celebration of the human body as art,” he said.

“She’s a beautiful woman,” he added.

Early Monday, the New York Post published another Knauss nude that showed her spooning on a bed with a second naked woman.

“MENAGE A TRUMP,” read the front page headline, right where the children can see it.

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Betsy SwanFormer Political Reporter

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