This morning, after the news that a judge has dismissed Stormy Daniels’ defamation lawsuit — and even required her to pay attorney’s fees — the president of the United States did not take victory graciously.

He instead took to Twitter — as he often does — to mock and scold another private U.S. citizen for what he likely sees as an attempt to humiliate him. In doing so, he humiliated her and made it even clearer to the rest of us just how he thinks and what he values. Contrary to the Christian values he espouses — or heck, contrary to any sense of decency or professionalism — he denigrated a private citizen on a public stage. Trump’s staff and confidants need to hold him to account.


The president has every right to say whatever he pleases, of course. It is also true that Stormy Daniels is no ordinary private citizen — she and her attorney have continually engaged with the president long after their sordid affair passed. Still, this doesn’t mean she deserves to be publicly denigrated and dehumanized.

Some might defend President Trump’s behavior and remark that “we knew who he was when we voted for him.” While partly true — he didn’t hide his promiscuous ways or his crude mannerisms either online or in real life — he did hide more than he revealed.

The fact that we knew he was a womanizing narcissist who expresses his every thought and feeling on Twitter doesn’t mean the citizens of America want this behavior to continue now that he occupies the Oval Office. His being a crass boor as a private citizen doesn’t excuse his behaving today in a manner unbecoming of not only the president of the free world but of any decent man.

Since his campaign, Trump has aligned himself with conservative, Christian values — or at the very least, he garnered their support. He has certainly accomplished many policies that conservatives appreciate. Just the dozens of judicial appointments, including two Supreme Court confirmations alone, satisfy many conservatives.

That leaves us in a place where many evangelicals are celebrating a president who behaves in a way unbecoming of a Christian.

Let this stand loud and clear: Demeaning any private citizen, man or woman, privately but especially publicly, under the guise of Christian values is neither Christian nor valued. It needs to end.

It’s time Trump’s staff and other officials with whom he holds any kind of confidence hold him to account. America cannot afford to further fritter her standards of professionalism and decency because the president acts on Twitter as if it’s a playground and he’s the bully.