The more federal investigators turn their attention to Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, the more Team Trump would love to put some distance between the president and his former top aide. In the spring, for example, then-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer twice tried to downplay the significance of Manafort’s role in Trump’s political operation.
Just how far would Trump World go to throw Manafort under the bus? The question took a curious turn yesterday.
The National Enquirer, the president’s favorite supermarket tabloid, announced its latest scoop yesterday, insisting that Manafort has been caught up in some kind of sex scandal — a story that ran just hours after we learned the FBI raided the former campaign chairman’s home last month. The National Enquirer‘s piece went on to quote a “White House adviser” who said Manafort was guilty of “betraying … his country.”
This comes about a month after the president publicly suggested he has some influence over the tabloid’s editorial decisions.
Slate summarized the larger context nicely:









