On the 23rd day with no Melania, I can’t help but be reminded of the troubling story of Martha Mitchell’s forced imprisonment at the hands of the Nixon administration

Melania Trump has not been seen in public since May 10. The White House said on 14th that she’d undergone surgery for a “benign” kidney issue, but, according to doctors who have been interviewed in the press, the kind of procedure she’s said to have had wouldn’t have required such a lengthy recovery period. So, for the past 23 days, people have been wondering. And her tweets during this period, all of which seem to have been written by her husband, certainly haven’t helped quiet speculation that something might be very wrong.

I know there’s likely a very simple explanation – like that she hates the President, and has decided that she no longer wants to play the role of First Lady, telling America’s kids to “Be Best” while pretending to care – but, having just recently listened to the Martha Mitchell episode of the “Slow Burn” podcast about Watergate, I can’t help but wonder if maybe there’s something more to it. I mean, really, who would have thought it even remotely possible back in 1972 that the wife of Nixon’s former attorney general, could have been beaten, drugged and held prisoner by members of a presidential administration who feared that she might talk with the press about the Watergate break-in? But yet that’s exactly what happened. Of course, no one really believed her once she was finally let go, as she’d been labeled an alcoholic and a kook by members of the administration, but the truth eventually came out.

[Thanks to Mitchell, there’s now term in the psychiatric profession that’s used to describe when a patient’s accurate perception of real events are labeled delusional. It’s called The Martha Mitchell Effect.]

Here, from Medium, is bit of the story, for those of you who might not have heard it before.

…In the summer of 1972, Martha Mitchell was on the telephone in her hotel room in Newport Beach, California, when a security guard for President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign walked over and yanked the cord out of the wall. According to Mitchell, for the next 24 hours, the guard, who was working on orders from her husband, former attorney general John Mitchell, refused to let her leave. Every time she tried to escape, the guard caught her. Later she recounted, “From then on I saw no one — allowed no food — and literally kept a prisoner.” At more than one point, things got physical. Mitchell said that the guard, Stephen King, kicked her and, later, during one of her escape attempts, put her hand through a glass window, causing an injury that required six stitches. The incident was humiliating. Mitchell reported, “He came into my room while the doors were closed and I was undressed.” At some point, King called a doctor, who walked into the room without saying a word to Mitchell. He and King threw her on the bed and held her down while the doctor removed her pants and administered a tranquilizing shot to her rear end…

That security guard who beat and held Mitchell against her will, by the way, was nominated by Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate this past October to be our U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic… Yes, these are exactly the kinds of men that have sought to represent Trump’s America abroad.

Back to Melania though… As I didn’t appreciate it when people on the right speculated about Obama’s birth certificate, or Hillary’s health, I’m hesitant to engage in any armchair sleuthing about what may or may not have happened to the third Mrs. Trump. And I hope the comment thread accompanying this post doesn’t fill up with speculation about murder, plastic surgery or spousal abuse. With that said, though, I feel I’d be remiss, as someone who knows the story of Martha Mitchell, if I didn’t at least mention that, not so long ago, the wife of a prominent American politician was actually drugged and held against her will by surrogates of the president when they felt as though she had information that could harm the administration. And that’s all I’m saying… Nothing should surprise us.

Again, I expect that Melania is fine, but understandably fed-up. With that said, though, I do really believe that, by the time all of this is done, things will have gotten a whole lot weirder. And, as I’ve said before, it wouldn’t surprise me at all, given the kind of people in Trump’s orbit, if murder was eventually on the long list of crimes that we’re discussing… I don’t imagine, however, that’ll happen until the end of the first season, which is still a ways off.

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32 Comments

  1. K. Smith
    Posted June 3, 2018 at 9:09 pm | Permalink

    I wouldn’t be so quick to rule our spousal abuse. In 1993, Harry Hurt III published “Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump”, in which he details an incident involving Trump’s first wife. The book is out of print, but there’s a New Yorker article about it. Here is an excerpt.

    “Hurt obtained a copy of her sworn divorce deposition, from 1990, in which she stated that, the previous year, her husband had raped her in a fit of rage. In Hurt’s account, Trump was furious that a “scalp reduction” operation he’d undergone to eliminate a bald spot had been unexpectedly painful. Ivana had recommended the plastic surgeon. In retaliation, Hurt wrote, Trump yanked out a handful of his wife’s hair, and then forced himself on her sexually. Afterward, according to the book, she spent the night locked in a bedroom, crying; in the morning, Trump asked her, “with menacing casualness, ‘Does it hurt?’ ” Trump has denied both the rape allegation and the suggestion that he had a scalp-reduction procedure. Hurt said that the incident, which is detailed in Ivana’s deposition, was confirmed by two of her friends.”

  2. Eel
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 7:23 am | Permalink

    In Melania’s absence, who is overseeing the Be Best initiative and it’s staff with salaries totalling $486,700?

  3. anonymous
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 7:25 am | Permalink

    The event is closed to the press, but Melania Trump is scheduled to attend an event for Gold Star Families this evening at the White House. If she attends, it will be her first official event since May 10th.

  4. Jordan Miller
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 9:34 am | Permalink

    Slow Burn is an amazing podcast.

  5. M
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 9:36 am | Permalink

    Yeah, I really enjoyed it. It also scared me… in that it made a pretty persuasive case that, without Nixon’s secret recordings, Watergate probably wouldn’t have taken Nixon down.

  6. Iron Lung 2
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 9:40 am | Permalink

    Be best.

  7. Jordan Miller
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 9:41 am | Permalink

    I saw an article recently, I wish I remember where, that talked about how if there had been Fox News during the Nixon administration he never would have been impeached. That they are essentially state-run media who refuse to air any scandals involving the Trump administration, and therefore their viewers have no idea that there are even problems. I read a quote from the head of the largest Christian broadcasting network saying that they don’t air stories about Russia or Stormy Daniels because their viewers won’t want to hear them.

  8. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 1:30 pm | Permalink

    How do you explain Shepard Smith then, Jordan Miller? He is anti-Trump as shit. You think CNN and MSNBC don’t spew 100% CIA lies nonstop? Russian collusion is dead and has been for a long time because…there is none. Sean Hannity has been on the right track throughout. The firings and demotions of the FBI conspirators prove it. One week till the Inspector General report on the FBI’s handling of Clinton emails!

  9. Iron Lung 2
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 2:29 pm | Permalink

    lol

  10. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 3:08 pm | Permalink

    You type lol whenever you see anything true so that’s good to see.

  11. Iron Lung 2
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 5:10 pm | Permalink

    420 dude, woah, cbd where’s my card, phuuck, pass the edibles yo

  12. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 5:30 pm | Permalink

    There you go. You know nothing about Cannabis and you don’t want to know. It holds true: every true thing you see you mock. It’s such a low level of mockery too – just the most base sarcasm. Why do “marijuana” smokers take it for granted not to be such a dickhead but in your case it’s the opposite? You don’t have the ability to help anyone with a non-toxic medicine you produced yourself so you hate people doing it. You hate the idea of it. It can’t be true because that would mean yes in fact you are a major dick.

  13. Iron Lung 2
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 5:47 pm | Permalink

    Phuuuuck man i had brain cancer but that sweet obama kush cbd edible jester bong 640 power, oh phuuuuck, so hai

  14. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 5:49 pm | Permalink

    CBD is non-psychoactive by the way, derp. People generally don’t look for that unless they have an ailment. Research shows it helps kids with Dravet syndrome to have fewer seizures per day.

  15. Iron Lung 2
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 5:58 pm | Permalink

    Phuuuuck vape 640 x 420 ski thyme jester kush cbd edible vape juice churros phuuuckkk

    where’s my card dude, so haiiiiiiiii

  16. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 6:13 pm | Permalink

    It’s so regressive. You must be one of the most miserable pieces of crap around; a literal drag, a cancer on the community. You bring nothing good. Those African recordings were cool but oh, that wasn’t you, that was the OTHER Iron Lung. He is a major derp too and acts just like you. Maybe you should have a derp showdown and duel to the finish. Show ’em who is the derpiest of them all!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDZcA3Ut5Mo

  17. Iron Lung 2
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 6:24 pm | Permalink

    So dank dude, phuuuck take another toke vape city edible kush 890 wooooooooahhhhh so hai

  18. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 6:38 pm | Permalink

    I wonder what the parents of those kids who have a life because of Cannabis concentrates would think of someone like you. I know what many, many patients I know would think. To someone whose child is better with cannabinoids I think there would be an extra amount of sadness that there is such stupidity in the world.

  19. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 8:31 pm | Permalink

    You should go around acting like that to random people you think smoke weeed. I would love to see what happens. Don’t be an internet pussy. Say what you think to people’s face.

  20. Iron Lung 2
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 8:36 pm | Permalink

    Woah phuuuuckk weed 420 graffix bong dead vape city cbd oil eyes phuuuuuck so haaaaaaaaaiiii

  21. Iron Lung 2
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 8:39 pm | Permalink

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT23_4UUTa4

  22. Iron Lung 2
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 8:40 pm | Permalink

    dank 4 evah

    420 brain like jester graffix churros head

  23. Rowe
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 8:43 pm | Permalink

    I think it’s possible Melania is an unwilling, drug-induced “Stepford Wife”

  24. Sad
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 10:16 pm | Permalink

    I believe that generally the quality of the discourse in the comments section here doesn’t match the quality of the content in the blog.

    I believe in truth, Justice and beauty.

    I believe that DAY rocks!

  25. Iron Lung 2
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 10:27 pm | Permalink

    dank as phuuuuuuuuuuuuck

  26. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted June 4, 2018 at 11:08 pm | Permalink

    “Expand your thinking.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7dkL_JHWSU

  27. Jean Henry
    Posted June 5, 2018 at 6:04 am | Permalink

    I invite Sad to elevate the quality of discourse in the comment section. He should look to DAY perhaps as a model of such elevated discourse.

    As for what Sad believes in, he has conposed an elegant list of terms that most Americans agree on as core values even while vastly disagreeing on what they mean. But he forgot to include ‘Liberty.’

  28. iRobert
    Posted June 5, 2018 at 8:11 am | Permalink

    It seems pretty obvious that she married him gambling that the freakish geezer would keel within a few years and she’d be set for the rest of her life.

    Boy did she bet on the wrong horse. Now the poor thing has to endure all this, on top of already having to pretend not to be disgusted by the touch of that grotesque monster.

  29. Jean Henry
    Posted June 5, 2018 at 8:39 am | Permalink

    Melania is not the first princess to get locked up in the castle or the first to lock herself up in one. I know someone who works with famous stars regularly. Many don’t leave their houses very often. They are high class shut ins who are performing every time they appear in public.

    I hope Melania gets free and tells her story. It’s going to be vicious. I don’t think she’s stupid. I think she’s isolated to the point of ignorance. And I think she’s waiting… I don’t fault her her ambition. Who has she hurt so far?
    Be Best. (Ok that was really bad) Half hearted at best. Not Best. Nope.

  30. iRobert
    Posted June 5, 2018 at 8:56 am | Permalink

    I pray Melania’s suffering ends soon.

    If she strangled her husband, what jury wouldn’t acquit her.

  31. John Brown
    Posted June 5, 2018 at 9:16 am | Permalink

    Reminder that it’s entirely possible Melania is the honey pot that will put an exclamation mark on this treason incident. You can’t possibly think the FSB isn’t still stuck in the 1950s wrt espionage on America, and womens role?

  32. wendyo
    Posted June 5, 2018 at 5:49 pm | Permalink

    I think she is on to the $1.6 million paid out to the formerly pregnant playboy bunny that someone else (Broidy) took “credit” for (you would think they would find a different solution than the one that sunk John Edwards).

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