VII. Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery

The seventh commandment is among the most straightforward. Whatever interpretive disputes attach to some other commandments, the case here is plain. Convicted felon Donald Trump’s public life has for decades been shadowed by sexual faithlessness, including extramarital affairs and conduct reflecting an instrumental view of women and marriage. His faithlesssness cannot be reconciled with the commandment’s demand for fidelity. The issue is not merely private desire; it is the moral posture revealed by repeated sexual transgressions, boastfulness, and conspicuous lack of shame.

In biblical ethics, adultery is not only a breach of a spouse’s trust. It is a sign of disordered appetite: the refusal to accept covenantal limits, the treatment of another person as a gratification rather than a partner in mutual obligation. This pattern is visible not only in reported affairs but also in the broader tenor of his speech. He has often spoken of women in a manner that suggests possession, ranking, conquest, and entitlement. Such language matters because commandments are not magical lines that can be honored in the heart while violated in spirit. A person habituated to objectification is already moving in adultery’s direction, even before any particular allegation is proved.

Concrete episodes make the pattern unmistakable. In 2006, while married to Melania Trump, Trump engaged in a sexual encounter with adult film actress Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Clifford), an encounter he later publicly denied. In 2016, on the eve of the presidential election, his then-attorney Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in hush money to secure her silence. Federal prosecutors subsequently identified Trump as the individual who directed the payment scheme, and Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations arising from it. The episode is significant not only for the underlying conduct but for the subsequent denial and concealment.

Nor is this an isolated instance. Trump’s first marriage to Ivana Trump ended in the early 1990s amid his highly publicized affair with Marla Maples, which became tabloid headline news. That relationship began while he was still married and culminated in divorce proceedings that themselves underscored the breach of marital fidelity. The pattern continued in later years with contiuing allegations of extramarital conduct, reinforcing the impression not of a single lapse but of a sustained disregard for the exclusivity and obligations that marriage entails.

The seventh commandment remains one of the strongest grounds on which convicted felon Trump’s godly self-presentation collapses.