Epstein, MAGA & Trump: The Throuple From Hell

Character doesn't count in today's Republican Party, where conspiracies reign supreme.

One of the hallmarks of the Trump era is the alacrity with which intelligent people embrace stupidity. As it was in Mao’s China with the Red Guard, it is a political crime in today’s Republican Party to appear well-educated.

Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri often rants about “unelected progressive elites in our govt.” Hawley went to Stanford, taught at St. Paul’s School in London (founded in 1509), and graduated from Yale Law School. Senator Ted Cruz denounces “coastal elites who attack the NRA.” Cruz was born in Calgary, Canada, graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law School, was a Supreme Court clerk, worked in the Bush administration, and is a former assistant attorney general.

His wife was born in the coastal town of San Luis Obispo, California, and holds a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College, an M.A. from Université Libre de Bruxelles, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She works as a managing director at Goldman Sachs.

Heidi Cruz came to national attention when Donald Trump tweeted out an unflattering picture of her next to his wife, Melania, during the Republican primary in 2016 with the line, “A picture says a thousand words.” His wife, Melania, is a former nude model with a high-school degree.

The Harvard Law graduate and former Secretary of Education William Bennett wrote a bestselling book, The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals, in which he assailed President Clinton for his deeply flawed character. “A president whose character manifests itself in patterns of reckless personal conduct, deceit, abuse of power, and contempt for the rule of law cannot be a good president,” he wrote.