Unless he was going to confess and throw himself on the mercy of the court (and it’s kind of late for that), Trump had no alternative but deny, deny, deny. Of course, the denials are a little tinny given that he was caught on tape boasting that he does this sort of thing as a general matter. It’s a little like his political giving — he has said that as a general matter he donates to politicians to curry favor and buy them off, then he has to turn around and deny buying anyone off in particular. All that said, he could do a much better job bulldozing through this — polls show a lot of people don’t care, even if they don’t believe his denials — if he weren’t completely obsessed with it and determined to insult his accusers. Trump entered the general election campaign with massive baggage, and the imperative should have been not to add another ounce to it. Even after his horrible post-convention period, if he had just stopped giving the Democrats new material, he’d be in a much better position right now. But even at this late juncture, he can’t and won’t stop giving them more material.