Brunswick Beacon, 05.16.24
Just before porn star Stormy Daniels testified in Donald Trump’s hush money/election interference trial, Judge Juan Merchan tried to sanitize her testimony by excluding graphic details of her sex with Trump. There would be no lurid descriptions of “any details of genitalia.” Even so, Stormy’s testimony about Trump’s behavior made Americans cringe.
They met at a Lake Tahoe golf event in 2006. Stormy was 27. Trump was 60. He called her “the smart one” and invited her to dinner. Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, gave her his phone number so she could contact Trump. Keith told her to take the elevator to Trump’s penthouse suite before dinner. (Fun fact: Keith’s phone number appears on Stormy’s contact list as “Keith/Trump” and Daniel’s phone number appears on Trump’s list as “Stormy.”)
When Stormy knocked on Trump’s door, the cringe-fest began. Take your pick as to what was the most gag-inducing detail. Was it the fact that he answered the door wearing silk pajamas? Or that, while Stormy was using the bathroom, he stripped down to boxer shorts and a T-shirt?
Was it his attempt to cajole her into sex by suggesting she appear on his TV show, The Apprentice? Or his attempt to deflect Stormy’s praise of Melania by telling her not to worry because he and Melania don’t even sleep in the same room?
Was it Trump daring Stormy to spank him with a magazine featuring his picture on the cover? Or Trump telling a porn star, “You remind me of my daughter. She is smart and blond and beautiful?”
I think it was Trump preventing Stormy from leaving the room by blocking the door and telling her: “This is the only way you’re getting out of the trailer park.” It combines two of Trump’s most loathsome traits: his bullying of the weak and his contempt for people who, unlike Trump, did not inherit $413 million from Dad.
Kristine Garrity
Calabash