It may seem paradoxical that a porn actress could spark optimism in the midst of an election campaign so tarnished by Donald Trump’s rhetoric. But that’s exactly how I felt after the former president was convicted in Manhattan Criminal Court of falsifying accounting.
I admit that there were other legally important components that played into the decision of the twelve jurors, but every criminal trial is a theater with its protagonists—its bad guys and its good guys, its liars and its honest guys. The narrative and its plot—meaning the stories told by the lawyers on both sides—have a huge influence on the verdict. A major factor is the credibility of the witnesses, in other words, the actors. When the curtain rose for the curtain call, porn star Stormy Daniels seemed more credible than the former reality star.
How can we explain his implausible victory against a billionaire who boasts of having been educated at the best schools? Reading the testimony of Mme Daniels, one is immediately struck by the force of his words in comparison with the stammering spat out by the accused after the court meetings.
Stormy Daniels is anything but a rich kid like Trump. A product of the working class, she grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and despite her single mother’s financial struggles, she appears to have succeeded academically, demonstrating a talent for journalism, engineering, ballet, and horseback riding in high school.
But American life is hard for poor and neglected girls — “my mother […] disappeared for days.” Mme Daniels declined a scholarship to veterinary school in part because she had been pursuing an exotic dance career since she was 17. “I could make more in two nights than I could shoveling manure eight hours a day” at a horse stable.
Wanting to increase her income by stripteaseshe quickly realized that she needed to get glamorous credentials, either by posing nude for magazines or by competing or doing porn. Acting in films paid off, but wearing the hats of screenwriter and director under contract for Wicked Films was even more so. It was in this light that she met in 2006, in Lake Tahoe, the great man who exclaimed: “Oh, really, you direct too? You must be smart.” And how!
Allergic to long-term thinking, Trump was not wary. His bodyguard invited Mr.me Daniels for dinner, and she, encouraged by her publicist, eventually agreed, perhaps thinking that the observations of a wealthy man who hosted his own television show might be useful to her. It was in this context that she was able to appreciate the high-end prospects of the self-proclaimed business genius.
According to Stormy Daniels, upon entering her sprawling hotel room, she made fun of her outfit: silk or satin pajamas. “Is Mr. [Hugh] “Hefner knows you stole his pajamas?” she asked him. She made him put on pants and a shirt, after which he asked her many questions about the “aspects business “porn cinema, which she said she found” cool “On the other hand, she recalls, “he would cut me off as if he wanted to score a goal against me, which was hilarious, when you think about it.” Indeed, trying to get the better of a 27-year-old stripper was bizarre for a future president.
After these endless discussions, dinner had still not been served, and Mme Daniels was hungry: “Are you always this rude, arrogant, and pompous?” she recalled saying. I’ll spare you the “seduction” and the sex that followed, except for a condescending comment from Donald Trump challenging Stormy Daniels to prove she was serious about “getting out of her trailer park.” Suffice it to say that Daniels never had dinner with him and that when she came out of the bedroom, Trump reportedly told her, “We should get together again. We were fantastic together. I want to put you on the show. »
He was far from suspecting that the ” show ” would happen 18 years later, live from a criminal court.
Trump did not testify in his defense, so we can’t really know what was going on in his head as he watched his passing lover methodically destroy him. We can still suspect that he was deeply humiliated by it. The post-verdict Trump lacked his usual élan. Perhaps he was still thinking about Michael Cohen, his traitorous lawyer. Quoting his former boss, Cohen revealed in court that Donald Trump believed that if his affair with Daniels were to come out publicly, “women [allaient le] hate ; guys [allaient] maybe think it was cool ” Which is not very cool : Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted the day after the trial found 17% of voters more likely to vote for Trump; 24% less likely.
“You have also acted in and directed more than 150 pornographic films. […]so you have a lot of experience making fake sex seem real,” her lawyer told Stormy Daniels on the second day of her marathon testimony. “Movie sex is very real. Like what happened in that bedroom,” the actress replied, without hesitation.
Was this the first time in Trump’s life that reality presented itself so authentically? If so, forgive me, but I can’t help but see this as the beginning of the end of his charade, despite Biden’s fiasco in the first debate.