Stormy Daniels may seal Trump’s fate. How did a porn star become one of the most powerful people in politics?

Stormy Daniels was dancing her way through a ‘Make America Horny Again’ tour when news emerged that she had received hush money payments from Donald Trump. As those payments sit at the centre of Trump’s trial, Io Dodds explains how Daniels landed in the middle of a political firestorm

(AP)

One busy weekday night in May 2018, a Pittsburgh strip club dancer named Scarlet went to the bar for fries and ran into something unusual: a young man carrying a political non-fiction book conspicuously under his arm.

The book was Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff, about the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency, and the man – Isaac – was hoping that one of the other strippers would sign it for him.

“I’m not much of a strip club guy, but I had to come see this,” Isaac told The Pitt News as he waited in line behind a man carrying several bright red Trump hats.

These men were among the hundreds drawn to see porn performer Stormy Daniels as she danced across the country on her “Make America Horny Again” tour, closely followed by a political tempest over her alleged history with the serving president of the United States.

Just 10 minutes after the start of Ms Daniels’ first show in Pittsburgh, Mr Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani appeared to admit on Fox News that the mercurial tycoon had indeed authorised a hush money payment of $130,000 to his alleged ex-lover, contradicting previous denials.

Now Ms Daniels was again at the centre of a national firestorm when New York state prosecutors brought charges against Mr Trump, marking the first criminal prosecution against a former president in US history.

On 4 April 2023, Mr Trump was arrested and charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal an alleged scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to suppress stories about his alleged affairs with women – including Ms Daniels. At his arraignment in New York City, Mr Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.

After another year of legal wrangling, the trial finally began with jury selection on 15 April 2024 and, after several weeks of testimony from such colourful characters as National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and attorney Keith Davidson, Ms Daniels herself is due to take the stand on Tuesday 7 May.

Mr Trump has long denied an affair with Ms Daniels, and his lawyer has accused her of extortion. In a Truth Social post on 18 March last year, he described the allegations as “an old and fully debunked fairy tale” being exploited by “corrupt and highly political” Manhattan prosecutors.

Being convicted would not block Mr Trump from pursuing a second term in 2024, but could damage his chances, and it is certainly making it harder for him to campaign as he must attend court for the trial, four days a week. Things could get worse if he is barred from leaving New York state, or even put in prison during the election campaign.

It is a moment that Ms Daniels, now 45, probably never imagined in 2006, when she allegedly had an affair with the businessman and reality star then best known for hosting The Apprentice and putting his name on everything from skyscrapers to steaks to casinos.

This is the story of how a woman at the crossroads of politics, business, and sex work – never quite as separate as American elites would like to believe – could end up sealing the downfall of the 45th US president.

‘She is not someone to be underestimated’

“We will all get along just fine as soon as you realize that I am queen.” Those were the words printed beneath Stormy Daniels’ yearbook entry when she graduated from Scotlandville Magnet High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1997, according to The New York Times.

Back then she was known as Stephanie Gregory, a serious student with auburn hair from a “really bad neighbourhood” who liked horses and the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. Her real name now is Stephanie Clifford, after a previous husband.

“I wasn’t like the popular girl, and I wasn’t the jock, and I wasn’t the ditz. I was just sort of in the middle of the road,” Ms Daniels told The Times in a 2018 profile.

With good grades, she considered being a veterinarian, a writer, or a journalist, but a chance visit to a strip club at the age of 17 led to a guest performance and then regular gigs, in which she proved to be a talented and lucrative show-woman.

“We knew,” club employee Chuck Rolling told The Times. “She was moving in a direction that was bigger than us. We’re in Baton Rouge. We’re not even New Orleans.”

Business was good, allowing Ms Daniels to buy a house and car by the age of 23, according to an interview at the time. Yet she also expressed a fear that if she did not find some way of building a durable income, she could be left high and dry in middle age.

By all reports, Ms Daniels demonstrated a gift for self-promotion and snappy comebacks as she climbed the ranks and moved into pornography. She won industry awards and landed roles in mainstream reality TV shows, TV dramas, and then films such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up.

Daniels claims to have an affair with the president while he was married to Melania (Getty)

In some ways, Ms Daniels has much in common with Mr Trump. According to former colleagues, she has been canny about crafting and marketing her own image in pursuit of success, and as a film director, she is reportedly unafraid of firing people or taking them to task when she feels it is warranted.

“She was a very serious businesswoman and a filmmaker and had taken the reins of her career,” Hollywood director Judd Apatow told The New York Times. “She is not someone to be underestimated.”

She is also a frequent and voluble Twitter user, often skirmishing with her critics and blasting them with one of her most effective weapons: a cheerful refusal to be remotely ashamed of her profession.

“He opens his mouth more than I do my legs,” she told one Twitter user in January, referring to Mr Trump. “As a gay man, does it sting that I suck better d*** than you?” was her response to a detractor. To another user in 2018 who suggested she was a “dumb wh***”, she shot back: “Whew! Glad I’m a smart one.”

In between these battles, she has made efforts to protect her fans from scammers that use her likeness, regularly warning that accounts in her name on Facebook or other online services have nothing to do with her.

At the request of her fans, she even ran unsuccessfully against Louisiana Republican David Vitter for the US Senate in 2009, with the slogan “Screwing People Honestly”. News reports from the time claim that her political adviser’s car was blown up in a suspected bombing or arson attack, but The Independent could not ascertain the results of any investigations.

Around the same time, Ms Daniels was arrested for domestic violence after hitting her then-husband and throwing a potted plant during a fight, according to the Times. The husband was not injured and the charge was later dropped.

Hush money, threats, and alleged spanking

Long before Mr Trump’s election campaign, rumours of an affair between him and Ms Daniels surfaced on gossip websites, along with a photograph of Ms Daniels standing next to Mr Trump in his golfing attire.

Ms Daniels herself kept quiet until 2018, when The Wall Street Journal published a bombshell report alleging that Mr Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen had arranged a payment of $130,000 to Ms Daniels just before the 2016 election to stop her from disclosing the affair.

Cohen has since pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws by making this payment, and told prosecutors that he did so under Mr Trump’s direction (which Mr Trump denies). But once he first admitted the payment in 2018, Ms Daniels argued that her non-disclosure agreement was now void and became a crusader.

She spoke out frequently and candidly, saying Cohen had “acted like he is above the law” and “played by a different set of rules”. In an interview with 60 Minutes, she alleged that she had met Mr Trump at a celebrity golf championship near Lake Tahoe in California when he was 60 years old and she was 27. He invited her to dinner and then to his hotel suite, she said.

Bristling at Mr Trump’s egotistical approach to the conversation – he showed her a magazine with himself on the cover – Ms Daniels said she jokingly ordered him to pull down his trousers so he could spank him with the magazine. Perhaps to her surprise, he did it.

Sex allegedly ensued, and although Ms Daniels was not attracted to the mogul she has said the encounter was “consensual” and she was “not a victim”. The pair kept in touch, with Mr Trump “dangling” the opportunity of an appearance on The Celebrity Apprentice, but Ms Daniels said they never had sex again, despite his entreaties.

In 2011, Ms Daniels agreed to sell her story for $15,000 to a celebrity magazine, which naturally called Mr Trump for comment. That, Ms Daniels alleged, was when an unknown man approached her in a Las Vegas parking lot and told her to “leave Trump alone” or else “something” might “happen” to her.

“I have no reason to lie,” Ms Daniels told 60 Minutes. “I’m opening myself up for, you know, possible danger and definitely a whole lot of s***.... he knows I’m telling the truth.”

Daniels recounts her time with Trump (CBSNews/60 Minutes)

Months later, Ms Daniels was arrested in Columbus, Ohio, for breaking the city’s “no touching” law for strippers. She filed a lawsuit alleging that she had been persecuted by police officers who were supporters of Mr Trump, and the city government settled out of court for $450,000.

Today Ms Daniels continues to work her trade and tell her story, hosting a critically acclaimed reality TV show about gay men dating called For the Love of DILFs (that’s “Dads I’d Like To F***”). In April 2023, she gave a bombshell interview to Piers Morgan shortly after Mr Trump was arraigned on the hush money charges.

In 2019, she came out as bisexual and is married to Barrett Blade (real name Russell Barrett), a fellow porn actor and businessman. His company Alienwerks sells extraterrestrial-themed clothing as well as merchandise with Ms Daniels’ likeness.

Mr Barrett is Ms Daniels’ fourth husband. She was previously married to Brendon Miller, with whom she has one daughter.

Along with continuing to direct and act in porn films, Ms Daniels still likes horses, and in fact, competes in equestrian competitions.

She has also spoken out against the Republican Party’s recent assault on LGBT+ rights in red states such as Florida. She has continued to take pot-shots at Mr Trump (whom she calls “Tiny”), calling the prospect of a second term “terrifying”.

Having offered to testify in the New York case, which began on 15 April, she appeared on the list of potential witnesses after Judge Juan Merchan rejected an attempt by Mr Trump to block her testimony. She took the stand on 7 May.

Her “Make America Horny Again” tour back in 2018 appears to have been successful too. As she strode on stage just after 1am in Oregon, dressed in the colours of the star-spangled banner, the crowd chanted “Stormy! Stormy! Stormy!”

The show had to be stopped after 10 minutes because a drunk patron threw his wallet at her. But Ms Daniels declined to press charges, and the patron was released after offering his contrition.

“I was wasted,” the man told police, according to Oregon Live. “I think she is a really nice person. I am extremely sorry.”

Stormy takes the stand

On 7 May, Ms Daniels testified in Mr Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan, repeating under oath some of what she has previously claimed in the public eye – including the spanking claim.

She told the court that she met the former president in July 2006 while he was playing in a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.

Mr Trump invited Ms Daniels to dinner – which never actually happened, she testified.

Instead, the then-27-year-old adult film star said she went to meet 60-year-old Mr Trump at his penthouse suite.

She testified that she arrived at his hotel room to be greeted by Mr Trump in Hugh Hefner-like silk pajamas. They spoke for around two hours, she said, during which time she recalled that she “swatted him right on the butt” with a rolled-up magazine and he told her that she reminded him of his daughter.

At one point, she left the bathroom to find Mr Trump in his boxers and T-shirt on the bed.

Following, the sexual encounter, she said she felt “ashamed”.

Jurors also heard about the $130,000 payment paid to her by Michael Cohen for her silence – the payment now at the heart of Mr Trump’s criminal case.

Under cross-examination, a defence attorney asked Ms Daniels whether she “hated” Mr Trump. She said “yes”.

When asked if she wants him to go to jail, she carefully replied: “I want him to be held accountable… If he’s found guilty, absolutely.”