WASHINGTON – Two decades ago this week US president Bill Clinton declaredthat he “did not have sexual relations with that woman.”

As it turned out, he did — and he was impeached for lying about his trystswith Monica Lewinsky.

Today, another US president is accused of sexual impropriety –specifically of paying off a porn star one month before the November 2016election to keep their adulterous liaison quiet.

Such a bombshell allegation would be the kiss of death to most politicalcareers.

But Trump is no normal politician and in his tumultuous administration,”it’s not even the biggest story of the week,” wrote Aaron Blake in TheWashington Post.

Political analysts are scratching their heads to explain why — when itcomes to Trump — such a revelation barely elicits a collective shrug.

Clinton, of course, was president at the time and some of his assignationswith Lewinsky, a 22-year-old intern, took place in a secluded study by thehallowed Oval Office.

Trump was a private citizen when the 2006 sexual encounter with adult filmactress Stormy Daniels was alleged to have taken place.

He was, though, married at the time and his wife, Melania, had given birthto their son less than four months earlier.

Tobe Berkovitz, an associate professor of advertising at Boston University,said Trump displays an uncanny ability to sail past scandals.

“Trump is an anomaly,” said Berkovitz, who has served as a politicalconsultant on numerous political campaigns in addition to teaching.

“Look at the litany of other politicians, celebrities and journalists whohave just had the trap door open out from under them for behavior thatmight not be as egregious or as bad as Trump’s,” Berkovitz told AFP.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Trump had paid Daniels$130,000 to keep a lid on their dalliance.

Trump, through his personal lawyer, and Daniels, 38, whose real name isStephanie Clifford, have both denied anything ever went on between them.

But In Touch magazine published a 2011 interview with Daniels last week inwhich she expounds at length and in detail on their relationship and whatshe described as their “textbook generic” sex.

The In Touch interview, which had not been published before, was conductedprior to Daniels’ alleged signing of a secrecy agreement in October 2016.

Voters seem disinterested

G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs atFranklin and Marshall College, said he was a bit surprised at the lack ofinterest in the Stormy Daniels allegations — particularly during thecurrent “Me Too” moment of reckoning over sexual misconduct.

“This doesn’t seem to have taken hold,” Madonna said. “You would think thiswas something that would have gotten a fair amount of attention but no, notat all.

“There’s not been an overriding interest in the American media and thevoters seem, what’s the word, as though they’re disinterested.”

Madonna and other analysts said this may be partly due to the constantdrumbeat of extraordinary headlines coming out of the Trump White House.

“I can’t figure out — and I’ve been doing this for a long time — whetherit’s because every day there’s almost some huge national crisis of one sortor another,” Madonna said.

“(Maybe) it’s just the fact that it happened in 2006,” that Trump was aprivate citizen and that the sex was — by all accounts — consensual, hesaid.

In any case, Madonna doesn’t think Trump has anything to worry about.

“Believe me, with Trump things can change in a heartbeat, but I don’t thinkthis has much legs to derail his presidency at this point,” he said.

Olivia Nuzzi, Washington correspondent for New York magazine, attributedthe apparent blase reaction by the public and the press to what could betermed Trump “scandal fatigue.”

“You know, he’s had so many scandals like this that it kind of almost has atiring effect on all of us,” Nuzzi said on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”

Boston University’s Berkovitz agreed. “I think what’s happened is that somepeople have perhaps become numb to some of this behavior when it comes toTrump,” he said.

“It’s not that there’s a different standard for Trump,” he said. “It’s howTrump reacts to the allegations. Trump pulls off the gloves and hits themobile and starts tweeting. He doubles down on everything.”

Berkovitz said this reminds him, “ironically of Bill Clinton.”

“The classic 1990s Bill Clinton was to ‘Let no charge go unanswered,'”Berkovitz said. “Basically to — I don’t want to say lie — but to bend thetruth dramatically.

“He had no qualms about that.”

Daniels, meanwhile, is cashing in on her notoriety.

She appeared at the Trophy Club strip club in Greenville, South Carolina,over the weekend as part of a “Make America Horny Again” tour that willalso reportedly take her to several other states over the next few month. -AFP