Questions about his alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels aren't going away, so Trump's staying out of sight.
Trump remains in lockdown mode, as the Stormy Daniels hush money scandal and the looming Russia investigation continue to exert pressure on the White House.
Wednesday marks the fifth straight day that Trump has not had a public appearance on his schedule, even a brief one. He's also been unusually subdued with his tweets recently.
The hiding game comes after the White House hosted just a single press briefing last week. Reporter April Ryan suggests she's no longer being called on at press briefings because she pressed the White House on the Daniels saga.
It's now been 13 months since Trump hosted an actual White House press conference. But the current silence seems even more intense.
What's different now?
"Trump is now facing a triple-barreled litigation drama involving a porn actress, a reality show star and a former Playboy model that promises further embarrassing allegations,” as CNN reported.
To date, he has had no response for the mushrooming story.
On Friday, he abruptly exited what he claimed would be a White House "news conference," after taking only two queries from reporters. He bolted the room full of journalists and ignored a pointed question about lawsuits that are piling up about his previous extramarital affairs.
Since then, more than 23 million people in the U.S. watched Daniels give an extended interview to "60 Minutes," where she detailed her extramarital relationship with Trump, the hush money agreement that was arranged just weeks before the 2016 campaign, and her claim that someone threatened her and her daughter not to go public with her story.
Most Americans believe her.
"Sixty-three percent of those surveyed in the CNN poll say they believe the women who have come forward with the allegations of extramarital affairs with Trump, while 21 percent say they believe the president and 16 percent say they have no opinion on the matter,” Politico noted.
Daniels' attorney has now formally asked a judge that he be allowed to depose Trump about the hush money pact.
Meanwhile, Trump's legal woes mount on another front: His defense team, assigned with protecting him from the Russia investigation, has imploded.
After Trump's well-known head counsel, John Dowd, abruptly quit last week, at least half a dozen white-collar lawyers have turned down the opportunity to join Trump's legal team.
His sole remaining attorney working on the Russia case, Jay Sekulow, has now reached out to an assistant district attorney in Brunswick, Georgia, who Sekulow worked with four decades ago, Andrew Ekonomou, and is elevating his role on Trump's legal squad.
"A little-known former prosecutor with a doctorate in medieval history will play a central role on U.S. President Donald Trump’s legal team, as many top-tier lawyers shy away from representing him in a probe into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election," Reuters reports.
If Trump were facing murder chargers, Ekonomou might be the right attorney for the job. (Ekonomou told Reuters he "prosecutes a lot of murders for the D.A." in Georgia.) But for a high-level bout of sensitive negotiations with Robert Mueller's team, the move seems dubious at best.
Trump won't speak publicly these days, but he did exit the White House Tuesday night in order to meet with wealthy donors in Virginia.
They probably didn't press him about Daniels or Russia.
