Donald Trump is not the kind of man who might admire foreign laws, but he has showed enthusiasm for English libel law, which places the burden of proof on the journalist, and can lead to crippling fines. It is easy to see why. If the United States had libel laws resembling anything like what Britain has (Scotland’s separate legal system also deals with libel harshly), much of what we know about Trump the candidate would have remained unknown.
That could include his business failures, his tax records that the New York Times unearthed; the Page 3-type photographs of his third wife, Melania, and his misogynistic “locker room” banter with a journalist about how he courted women. That none of this seemed to matter millions of voters is an American tragedy. But those voters can’t claim that they didn’t know the kind of boorish, short-tempered, and insolent man that they have elected to the White House.
Content from our partners
