Stormy Daniels defends earning money from Trump furore: ‘Making orange juice out of oranges’

Award-winning porn actor and director says her decision to go public about her history with Trump overshadowed her career

Porn star Stormy Daniels has defended earning money from the furore over her alleged relationship with Donald Trump, saying she was simply “making orange juice out of oranges”.

In a live-stream on Wednesday night via OnlyFans, a subscription app popular with porn creators, Ms Daniels rebuffed criticism that she had exploited the situation for her own commercial gain.

Instead, she said, her allegations against the former president had overshadowed and derailed her career as an award-winning actor and director, leading her to sometimes regret coming forward.

Ms Daniels was thrust into the national political spotlight in 2018 when reporters alleged Mr Trump had paid her “hush money” two years earlier to keep quiet about a sexual encounter they had in a hotel room in 2016.

With her non-disclosure agreement (NDA) broken, she has become an outspoken critic of Mr Trump and has vowed to testify about the alleged payment if called to do so.

In her subscribers-only broadcast on Wednesday, she said her business ventures since then – including a nationwide pole dancing tour called “Make America Horny Again” and a 2018 memoir called Full Disclosure – were simply making the best of a bad situation.

“I’m getting blasted for making more money right now,” she said. “I obviously have a merch[andise] site... I’ve always done this! Everybody that has a business sells merch. You take the opportunity. Isn’t that what America is all about?”

“I just saw that Trump’s actually doing the same thing. He has segued into, you know, all the stuff going on right now, to help further his career and switch it to his advantage, capitalise on it and raise money.

“That’s actually – I can’t believe I’m about to say this – kind of brilliant. Like, he’s doing the same thing that I am doing. Why is it okay for him and it’s not okay for me? It’s just kind of f***ed up that there’s this whole double standard.”

In recent days, Mr Trump and his outriders have attempted to capitalise on the prospect of criminal charges for his alleged role in hush money payments, which could complicate his attempt to regain the White House in 2024.

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