Storm warning
The possibility that President Trump had a consensual affair with a porn star seems inconsequential next to a long list of other transgressions, not least his admitted habit of forcing himself on women who are not receptive to his advances. The country has arrived at a bizarre place where Stormy Daniels, who might have inflicted Category 5 devastation on previous presidencies, is a tempest in a Diet Coke.
And yet as with the investigation of the Trump campaign’s relationship with Russia, the president’s greatest problem in this case may stem from his team’s ham-fisted efforts to squash the scandal.
Trump lawyer Michael Cohen created a quandary by taking responsibility for a $130,000 payment to Daniels (whose real name is Stephanie Clifford) under a nondisclosure agreement signed shortly before the election and revealed by the Wall Street Journal. Cohen may have thereby distanced Trump from the exchange, but given its timing and alleged purpose, he also raised the question of whether it qualifies as a campaign contribution. As such it would exceed the legal limit 37 times and warrant more than a spanking from the Federal Election Commission.
Daniels told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that the broader campaign to silence her encompassed a mafia-style threat to her and her then infant daughter leveled by a mysterious stranger in a Las Vegas parking lot. Like many of the most sensational details of her story, the claim is neither verifiable nor out of keeping with Trump’s general approach.
By the actress’ account, she first impressed the future president by rebuffing his standard self-congratulatory spiel. Daniels’ media mastery, comfort with contradiction, and easy defiance of norms and contracts also suggest Trump may have met his match.