As you’ve probably heard by now, over the weekend The New York Times reported that Donald Trump’s oldest son, Donny Jr., had a pre-election habit of meeting with individuals connected to foreign governments, who may or may not have promised to help his father become president. In addition to the infamous June 2016 sit-down with a Kremlin-linked lawyer offering dirt on Hillary Clinton (“I love it,” our commander in chief’s namesake responded), it turns out junior also met with George Nader, an emissary for both Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, both of whom Nader claimed “were eager to help his father win election as president.” Also along for the ride was Joel Zamel, an Israeli “specialist in social-media manipulation.” Their meeting, which was arranged by former Blackwater chief Erik Prince and is now being probed by Robert Mueller, took place on August 3, 2016, and reportedly involved Zamel discussing his firm’s proposal about how to manipulate social media to Trump’s benefit—to which Donny apparently “responded approvingly.” Nader, who is said to have repeatedly referred to the princes as “my friends,” was subsequently “embraced as a close ally by Trump campaign advisers,” meeting frequently with Mike Flynn and Jared Kushner, the latter of whom both princes have claimed to have wrapped around their ring-laden fingers. After the election, Nader reportedly paid Zamel $2 million for reasons that are not totally clear, besides the fact that “a company linked to Mr. Zamel provided Mr. Nader with an elaborate presentation about the significance of social media campaigning to Mr. Trump’s victory.”

The key players involved in the meeting have denied, with varying forcefulness, that anything shady took place; a lawyer for Zamel said “Neither Joel Zamel, nor any of his related entities, had any involvement whatsoever in the U.S. election campaign,“ while a lawyer for Nader held that “Mr. Nader has fully cooperated with the special counsel’s investigation and will continue to do so.” A lawyer for the president’s son said his client “recalls” the meeting, and was pitched on “a social-media platform or marketing strategy,” but that ultimately Don Jr. wasn’t interested, and “that was the end of it.” Still, the question remains why Junior, a thirtysomething business executive who presumably knows it is illegal for foreign governments or individuals to involve themselves in U.S. elections, thought it wise to continue taking meetings that would have raised red flags for even the campaign’s slowest interns.

Luckily a source close to Donny-boy, who spoke to Axios on Sunday, has proffered an explanation: it’s not that Don Jr. is a criminal, or that he’s as dumb as he looks. It’s that he’s such a people-pleaser he doesn’t want to disappoint anyone, whether it’s some rando who walks into daddy’s D.C. hotel and wants a selfie, or a foreign individual promising to influence a presidential election in his father’s favor. Junior, the source said, “is the king of people wanting to leave a meeting happy, whether or not he intends to follow up.” The same person said that even now, 16 months into his father’s presidency, the president’s eldest son is frequently approached by strangers at the Trump International Hotel in D.C. clamoring for a photo with him. Don, the big ole softie that he is, is so ready to please that he lacks any sort of discernment when it comes to these fans—to the extent, the source said, that a friend will have to filter out his potential selfie partners, patiently telling him, “not that person.” Donny, the source explained, just “trusts people way too much.” In other words, it’s actually a miracle Junior hasn’t been lured into an unmarked van on his way home from work by strangers promising him candy (and unrestricted access to Clinton’s e-mail server).

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