Love and lust in the White House: Long list of US presidential sex scandals before Trump

For the past few days, former US president Donald Trump has been in a New York court as he is being tried in the hush money case. During the proceedings of the trial, adult film star Stormy Daniels, who was paid off $130,000 by Trump’s former lawyer, has revealed quite a few lurid details of their alleged affair, including the Republican frontrunner donning satin pajamas, a spanking and even the talk of STDs.

As salacious details about their alleged relationship are revealed, many point out that Trump is hardly the first in the White House to have such allegations be made against him. In fact, according to a Business Insider report, more than a third of the men who have occupied the US president’s chair has been accused of sexual misconduct, alleged to have had an affair, fathered a child out of wedlock with someone they were conducting such an affair with, or boasted of their extramarital sexual escapades.

So, while the trial against Trump continues, we take a look back at the US presidential sex scandals and their impact on American politics.

Bill Clinton and Monicagate

Prior to Donald Trump, perhaps Bill Clinton’s Monicagate scandal has been most notable in American politics in recent times.

In 1998, Clinton’s presidency was rocked with the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which also came to be known as Monicagate, Lewinskygate, and even Zippergate. The Drudge Report had first published the report of an affair between the two.

According to reports, in 1995, a then 21-year-old Lewinsky was an unpaid intern at the White House and began an affair with Clinton that went on for two years. A young Lewinsky had then confided about her affair with Clinton to her co-worker Linda Tripp, who secretly recorded those conversations.

After the scandal was exposed, Clinton denied the affair, famously saying that he “did not have sexual relations with that woman”. But later he admitted in a taped grand jury testimony in August that he had engaged in an “improper physical relationship” with Lewinsky. Clinton was charged with perjury and had to face an impeachment trial. The US House of Representatives voted to impeach Clinton, but a subsequent Senate trial failed to remove him from office.

Besides Monicagate, multiple women have accused Clinton of sexual assault. One such allegation was made by Juanita Broaddrick, a nurse-turned-Republican leader. She had alleged that Clinton had raped her in 1978 while he was attorney general of Arkansas. There were also accusations made by Paula Jones and Kathleen Willey, who claimed Clinton groped her in a White House hallway in 1993.

Marilyn Monroe and John F Kennedy’s many affairs

John F Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States of America, is often considered as one of the best looking commander-in-chiefs. And with his good looks and charisma came the rumours of several affairs.

He was rumoured to have affairs with a bevy of women — Hellen Rometsch, a model-turned East German spy, actor-singer Marlene Dietrich, White House intern Mimi Alford, and his wife’s press secretary, Pamela Turnure.

It is reported that Kennedy’s wife, Jacqueline Bouvier, wasn’t in the dark about the relations. A 2012 story in The Atlantic reports that while the First Lady was giving a tour of the White House to a French reporter, she had said, “this is the girl who supposedly is sleeping with my husband”, pointing to one of the secretaries’ desk.

On his 45th birthday, the US president was famously serenaded by Hollywood siren Marilyn Monroe, which prompted widespread rumours that the two had a love affair. While speculation and conjecture spread like wildfire, the affair was never confirmed.

George H W Bush

The first of the Bush presidents, George HW Bush, faced allegations of affairs with two women, one being a White House staffer during his administration and another being a woman he allegedly carried out a relationship with in the 1960s.

In Susan Page’s book The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty, it is revealed that Bush’s wife, Barbara, became suicidal after her husband was accused of having an affair with his aide Jennifer Fitzgerald. While rumours of the affair persisted for years, the parties involved denied it completely.

Richard Nixon’s attempts at women staffers

While Richard Nixon is known worldwide for the Watergate scandal, he also ran into trouble over his behaviour with women staffers in the White House.

In The Last of the President’s Men, veteran journalist Bob Woodward quotes Alexander Butterfield, Nixon’s deputy assistant, about the commander-in-chief’s seduction techniques. The book quotes how he invited Nell Yates, a 48-year-old secretary, to Camp David in 1972 and then made a move on her.

In another instance, according to Woodward, Nixon touched the bare legs of a secretary named Beverly Kaye, whom he ogled when she boarded a flight with him wearing a mini skirt. He then asked Kaye to sit with him and stared at her thighs until just out of the blue … he start[ed] patting her on her bare legs,” Butterfield said.

Former Senate staffer Bobby Bakerord also alleged that Nixon had an affair with East German spy named Ellen Rometsch at the height of the Cold War.

Franklin Roosevelt’s affair with wife’s secretary

Franklin D Roosevelt carried out a long-time affair with his wife Eleanor’s secretary, Lucy Mercer. It is reported that Eleanor discovered a packet of love letters from Mercer in his suitcase in 1918 and subsequently offered her husband a divorce, but his mother would not allow it, PBS reported.

They continued their marriage but the First Lady began focusing increasingly on social work and nurturing her own career.

Warren G Harding and White House adventures

The country’s 29th president, Warren G Harding, scandalised the nation with his sexual escapades. He had an affair while in office with secretary Nan Britton, 30 years his junior, and it was reported that the two even had adventures in the White House’s coat closet.

A Politico essay writes that Harding would take Britton into his office and sit her on his lap. He even took her virginity in a hotel room and later brought her to the White House for regular rendezvouses.

In 2015, the New York Times reported that new genetic tests had confirmed for the first time that Britton’s daughter, Elizabeth Ann Blaesing, was indeed Harding’s biological child.

Thomas Jefferson fathers child with slave

Thomas Jefferson, one of America’s founding fathers, and the third US president, was accused of fathering children with a slave, Sally Hemings, during his first term in office. It was in 1998 that a DNA test proved that two of Hemings descendants were linked to Jefferson.

George Washington and Venus

Perhaps, the tradition of sex scandals in the White House began with George Washington, America’s first president. He was accused of fathering a son with Venus, a young slave who lived on the estate of his half-brother John Augustine Washington.

Historians are sceptical of the claims, asserting that there is no documentary evidence that suggests Washington ever met Venus.

With inputs from agencies