Stormy Daniels testifies that Trump said she reminded him of his daughter: ‘Smart, blonde and beautiful’
The adult film star testified that she felt ‘ashamed’ after their alleged sexual encounter in 2006
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Before they had sex in a hotel room in 2006, Donald Trump told Stormy Daniels that she reminded him of his daughter, according to the adult film star’s testimony in his hush money trial.
Ms Daniels took the stand in the high-profile trial in New York on Tuesday, where she detailed the events leading up to their alleged sexual encounter.
The adult film star told jurors she met the man who later became the US president in July 2006 – one year after he married Melania Trump and four months after his son Barron was born – at a charity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.
After being invited to dinner, she went to his penthouse suite, she testified.
While they spoke, Ms Daniels testified that Mr Trump likened her to his daughter.
“You remind me of my daughter,” Mr Trump told her in the hotel room, according to Ms Daniels.
“Smart, blonde and beautiful. And people underestimate her as well.”
It is not clear if Mr Trump was referring to Ivanka Trump or Tiffany Trump.
However, Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who was also paid so-called hush money payments after having an alleged affair with Mr Trump, has previously discussed being compared to Ivanka by Mr Trump.
Speaking on Anderson Cooper 360, she said: “He’s very proud of Ivanka, as he should be. I mean, she’s a brilliant woman. She’s beautiful.”
“He said I was beautiful like her and, you know, you’re a smart girl. And there wasn’t a lot of comparing, but there was some, yes. I heard a lot about her,” she said.
Ms Daniels’ testimony also echoes what she told 60 Minutes in 2018.
In that interview, she recounted her encounter with Mr Trump: “He was like, ‘Wow, you — you are special. You remind me of my daughter.’ You know — he was like, ‘You’re smart and beautiful, and a woman to be reckoned with, and I like you. I like you.”
During her testimony on Tuesday, Ms Daniels said that, after meeting at the golf tournament, Mr Trump, then 60 years old, had invited the then-27-year-old adult entertainer to dinner.
“F no,” Ms Daniels said she remembers thinking.
“No, with an expletive in front of it.”
A friend ultimately convinced her to go, she testified. Ms Daniels remembered her friend ominously telling her: “It’ll make a great story, he’s a business guy. What could possibly go wrong?”
Ms Daniels said she had hoped to land an apperance on Mr Trump’s hit NBC reality series The Apprentice but doubted her business talent.
She later wound up at Mr Trump’s penthouse room at Harrah’s, Ms Daniels recalled. Mr Trump’s suite “was three times the size of my apartment,” she said.
Ms Daniels recalled being annoyed by Mr Trump’s “arrogance” and his tendency to “one-up” everything she was saying, she said.
She recalled telling him: “Are you always this rude? You don’t even know how to have a conversation?”
Ms Daniels told the court that “he seemed to be taken aback by that”.
The adult film star then said she swatted him “right on the butt” with a rolled-up magazine. After that, he was “much more polite,” she said on the stand.
Mr Trump and Ms Daniels never ended up having dinner, she said. As she left the restroom at one point during their meeting, Mr Trump appeared on the bed in boxers and a t-shirt.
“At first I was just startled, like a jump scare,” she testified on Tuesday. “I felt the blood leave my hands and my feet, almost like standing up too fast. ... I just thought, ‘Oh my god, What did I misread to get here?’ The intention was pretty clear.”
Ms Daniels posed to show what Mr Trump looked like horizontally on the bed, showing jurors that he had one hand on her head and one hand on her hip.
Mr Trump did not wear a condom, she said.
After their sexual encounter, she testified he said to her: “That was great. Let’s get together, honeybunch.”
She said she took a cab back to her hotel.
“I told very few people that we had actually had sex,” she testified. “I felt ashamed that I didn’t stop it, that I didn’t say no.”
Ms Daniels would later receive $130,000 from Mr Trump’s then-attorney Michael Cohen to ensure she would not speak about the alleged affair while Mr Trump was running for the presidency in 2016.
Mr Trump would later reimburse Cohen for his payment to Ms Daniels in a series of monthly checks throughout 2017, while he was president.
Those checks were labelled as legal expenses across Trump Organization accounting documents.
Mr Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records over these payments, with Manhattan prosecutors accusing him of a cover up to conceal the payments intended to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.