Can Donald Trump be blackmailed?

Having developed a sharp pain in the stomach earlier in the day, I decided against trying to watch the Republican debate, preferring to spend the night in the library. Later on, I was a little surprised to see that Trump has finally, and irrevocably, ruled out an independent bid.

"I am totally committed to the Republican party. I feel very honored to be the front runner," he said. "I will do everything in my power to beat Hillary Clinton."

What brought that about, I wonder?

While you're pondering that matter, consider this: In the same debate, Trump made the following declaration...

Trump slammed American adventurism in the Middle East: “In my opinion, we’ve spent $4 trillion trying to topple various people that frankly if they were there [and the U.S. had spent domestically] we would’ve been a lot better off… We have done a tremendous disservice not only to the Middle East. We’ve done a tremendous disservice to humanity … The Middle East is totally destabilized. A total and complete mess.”

Carly Fiorina replied with perhaps the worst insult available at a GOP debate: "Wow, that’s exactly what President Obama said."

No, that's what Obama's neoconservative masters said. And then they added: "Mission accomplished!"

Trump's declaration was one of his few sane moments -- in fact, that passage may be the sanest thing said by any Republican this campaign season. But if Donald Trump really feels that way, then why is he palling around with John Bolton, one of the schemers who helped to waste all of that money and do all of that damage?

Let's go into paranoia mode for a moment. (And please do not suggest that those words be engraved on my tombstone.) Is Donald Trump the sort of person who can be manipulated? Is he blackmailable?

When you say the word "blackmail" to most people, thoughts immediately turn to sex -- although men and women do have other weaknesses. I feel fairly confident that Trump has his fair share of sexual secrets. Note, for example, Trump's friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted abuser of the underaged who has turned his private island into a refuge for the unspeakable...

"I've known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,'' Trump booms from a speakerphone. "He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life."

Trump also formed a friendship with Adnan Khashoggi, from whom he bought one of the world's most famous yachts. Khashoggi, now 80 and more-or-less retired, was a Saudi "venture capitalist" and arms dealer: In essence, he brokered deals on behalf of his government and kept a nice chunk of the loot for himself. (Fun fact: Adnan's mailing address in 2001 was a small brick home in the town of Murray, Utah.)

He was also well-known to provide high-class escorts to the world's wealthy. See here...

Later, when she asks him if he paid Heather Mills to have sex with him or his guests in Marbella, Khashoggi replies: "Who cares?'

When she presses him for a yes or no answer, he stops for a moment and then thinks. Again he replies: "Who cares?' But then he goes on: "Mind you, we looked into it. It looks like a quarrel between girls. One is attacking the other." He adds: "How does she know names, places, if she wasn't one of the girls? Maybe if she says she came to my party, she came."

Khashoggi was renowned for his sumptuous parties which attracted lots of women.

His chauffeur told in 1984 that Khashoggi would give large gifts of cash to women who went to his parties, although he said sex was not necessarily expected.

In 1989 Pamella Bordes, the high-class call girl who had a House of Commons pass, said she was hired by Khashoggi to provide sexual favours for a number of high profile business and political clients.

There was an article about Khashoggi's women in the L.A Times back in the mid 1990s that I would love to re-obtain. In it, a Khashoggi aide is quoted as saying that these escorts operated at such a high level that one cannot really call them prostitutes.

(I once met one of Adnan's girls. She was quite nice -- and still very beautiful, even though she had passed the age of 30 and was thus no longer an ornament in that rarified world.)

So, yes, it is very likely that, somewhere in this world, there is a photograph or a tape recording of Donald Trump that could create embarrassment for the current GOP frontrunner. And even if there is no video or audio evidence, then there must be women who could offer some scandalous revelations.

But how scandalous? We live in jaded times. The culture has changed since the days of Gary Hart and Donna Rice.

Everything I've read about Donald Trump suggests that he has always liked attractive, grown-up women with curves. America already knows this. Nothing suggests that he has tastes similar to those of Jeffrey Epstein, and nothing suggests that he has ever taken lessons in conquest from Bill Cosby.

If the worst came out about Donald Trump, evangelicals would be aghast -- and he would not mollify them with a tearful admission of sin. But would anyone else care?