The Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski case allegations weren’t the only crazy thing that happened in Trump World this week.

This week has delivered a wealth of information about garbage behavior among Donald Trump’s circle of associates, and it practically calls for a Friday afternoon recap on the internet. You’ve seen the headlines about South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump 2016’s perpetually disgraced campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, the business, the trial and error, resignations and, more worryingly, real estate appraisals; you have questions. We have answers.

What is the problem?

This week, Noem – who has been the subject of discussions as Trump’s potential running mate in 2024, or as a potential candidate if he doesn’t show up – denied a report on the American Greatness website that claimed that she had had an extramarital affair with Lewandowski. She too denied an AP report that she intervened inappropriately when her daughter’s application for a real estate appraisal license was denied. Lewandowski was also the subject of a Politico report which quotes at length from a statement provided by an attorney for Trump’s donor named Trashelle Odom; according to the statement, Lewandowski repeatedly touched and verbally harassed Odom for an extended period of time during a charity event on Sunday September 26 in Las Vegas. Politico says Odom’s account is corroborated by other eyewitness testimony and that Lewandowski “appeared to be intoxicated” during the events described.

What is “American greatness”?

This is a website founded five years ago with the almost admirably ambitious goal of arguing that the things Donald Trump does and says are in fact deeply rooted in a centuries-old conservative intellectual tradition.

Can you imagine Donald Trump reading, like, a book?

No, I can’t imagine it.

So what’s the story of Noem and Lewandowski?

First off, it’s titled “Kristi Noem Shows Why Republicans Can’t Have Nice Things,” which, in reference to teenage pop culture phrasing that was pretty worn out midway through the last decade, is a funny thing to call an article on a website whose avowed purpose is to restore, say, a muscular authoritarian seriousness to American public life. But the story, citing “from multiple sources,” says Lewandowski had an affair with Noem, to whom he acted as an informal adviser in his capacity as chairman of a pro-Trump super PAC. The article includes stellar word combinations, really exhausting to sound like normal journalism like “the alleged adventure would have lasted for months, sources say” and “Lewandowski … still has the ear of the former president, whom he says. allegedly used to Noem’s advantage. Nothing gets a purported fling to continue, according to sources, like using an ear to someone’s advantage.

The pro-Trump media are versus reckless and destructive personal behavior now? And why would a MAGA site want to eliminate Kristi Noem, anyway?

The apparent turnaround regarding extramarital affairs is not discussed, but the rest of the article explains why parts of MAGAsphere are angry with Noem, who made his national reputation by rejecting COVID precautions and organized a collection of funds with Trump earlier this year. She has since killed two bills – one involving transgender athletes and the other that would have banned private employers from requiring their employees to be vaccinated – which were proposed by right-wing state lawmakers . Either way, it appears Noem believed that passing the bills could alienate big business.

American Greatness also mentions the apparent corruption incident described by The Associated Press. According to the AP, after the South Dakota Real Estate Appraiser Certification Office rejected Noem’s then 26-year-old daughter’s application in July 2020, the woman who ran the office was called to a meeting. with Noem, then, shortly after. , said to retire by the Secretary of State for Labor. Noem’s daughter then got the permit. (The AP says that by regulation, applicants are turned down if examples of their work “do not meet minimum compliance with national standards.”) Noem denied having an affair with Lewandowski or intervening inappropriately in it. the case of his daughter.

The pro-Trump media are versus to advance the careers of your incompetent children now?

Ha ha! Good.

Back to Lewandowski.

Yes. Odom, Trump’s donor, says that at a Sunday night dinner Lewandowski repeatedly touched her, made sexual comments to her, followed her from room to room, threw her a drink, called her “stupid,” then followed her again to a party at another location, during which he had to be kept away from her by other guests.

Where did the initial dinner take place, by the way?

In a Benihana.

This behavior is not unusual for Lewandowski, is it?

Allegedly. In 2016, he was charged with drums for grabbing and pulling the arm of a Breitbart.com reporter who attempted to ask Trump a question at a campaign event. The charges were subsequently dropped. In 2017, a woman filed a police report accusing him of touching her butt twice at a party at the Trump Hotel in Washington, although he does not appear to have ever been charged in the case. .

Will he face any consequences for this latest incident?

Surprisingly, it is possible. After the Politico story was published, a spokeswoman for Trump said Lewandowski would be replaced as the head of the Make America Great PAC. According to Politico, “the news of the incident” in Benihana “shook those around the former president, several people familiar with the talks said.”

Yes, I’m sure Donald Trump was shocked by this sort of thing going on. Was there anything reported this week about the revealing book by former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham that would serve as a particularly sharp reminder that gross and potentially illegal sexual impropriety is not only tolerated but actively welcomed in “the inner circle of the former president”?

Why yes, Grisham apparently wrote that Trump asked his then-boyfriend, in her presence, if he liked having sex with her, and was told that Trump had asked once that a junior press secretary be brought into his presence so he could “watch his ass.”

That’s great. It is a whole stable of leaders and models that the Republican Party is developing!

Indeed, at some point in the next few decades, several Cabinet members will have been arrested during Ruby Tuesday’s.