There are people who, on hearing that Trump did business with organised crime, will shrug it off as evidence of his maverick pragmatism. A lot of his schtick has been that he’s some loose-cannon TV cop who breaks all the rules and never has to deal with the consequences of his actions, and his supporters pretend to believe this horseshit rather than engage with the real world, where most TV loose cannons would rightly be in prison by episode 3.
But even Trump supporters have limits to their assholery. If this story (or, say, his treatment of women) got real traction, I think a lot of Americans would struggle to stand in a voting booth and think “yes, I’m going to vote for that to be the actual president of the non-fictional country where I live”.
Still, a lot hinges on whether the news media can pull out of their current ethical nosedive. Which is a very worrying thing to have to hope for.
