- Biographer Tim O'Brien says Trump may have paid Stormy Daniels because he was scared of Melania.
- "I think he was also worried about his marriage getting blown up," O'Brien told MSNBC.
A Trump biographer says former President Donald Trump may have paid off adult film actress Stormy Daniels because he was scared of his wife, Melania Trump.
"I don't think he was only worried about his campaign potentially getting blown up. I think he was also worried about his marriage getting blown up," O'Brien told MSNBC's "Deadline: White House" on Sunday.
"Donald Trump has a long history of cheating on his wives, and I think he was probably more afraid at that point of Melania Trump than he was of the electorate, so he had a motivation to try and get this out of the way," O'Brien added.
O'Brien wrote the 2004 biography, "TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald." He's now the senior executive editor of Bloomberg's opinion desk.
O'Brien isn't the first person to claim that Trump is afraid of his wife.
"He reserves — he listens to many of us, but he reserves fear for one person, Melania Trump," Kellyanne Conway, who was formerly a senior Trump White House aide, testified in November to the House panel investigating the Capitol riot.
A grand jury is now hearing evidence over Trump's possible role in paying a hush-money settlement to Daniels.
Michael Cohen, Trump's one-time fixer turned nemesis, testified in front of a New York grand jury on Monday afternoon in what could potentially be a final step before a possible Trump indictment. If convicted, Trump risks felony-level charges, which could carry a jail term.
Separately, several women have claimed to have had affairs with Trump.
Daniels says she had an affair with Trump in 2006, a year after he married Melania Trump. Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, also claims to have had an affair with Trump in 2006. Cohen says he made hush money payments to McDougal in 2015, at Trump's direction.
Trump has repeatedly denied that he had affairs with Daniels and McDougal.
A spokesman for Donald Trump did not respond to Insider's request for comment on O'Brien's statements regarding Trump's potential hush money payments. O'Brien and representatives for Melania Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.