Stormy Daniels Called Donald Trump Her ‘Puppet,’ 5 Years Before Hillary Clinton Called Trump Putin’s ‘Puppet’
Adult video performer Stormy Daniels, according to an article published by tabloid magazine InTouch Weekly, described how she could make Donald Trump behave as her “puppet,” the same word Hillary Clinton used to describe Trump in an October, 2016, presidential debate. However, in that debate, Clinton was referring not to Trump’s alleged sexual affair with a porn star, but his relationship to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The seemingly coincidental use of the term by both Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and Clinton may shed light on an aspect of Trump’s personality not often discussed publicly — the alleged ease with which he can be manipulated by others. Journalist Willam Saletan’s writing in the online political magazine, Slate, in November of 2016 described Trump as “an emotional weakling” whose “emotional softness makes him morally weak.”
It was that supposed malleable side of Trump which Clinton attempted to highlight in their third and final debate on October 19, 2016.
Trump also has a submissive side, according to emails from her prospective 2009n campaign for United States Senate in Louisiana. Daniels ultimately decided not to run, but before withdrawing she told her political advisers that Trump at Trump’s request, she had once given him a spanking, using a copy of Forbes Magazine as a paddle, according to a Thursday report by Mother Jones online.
According to InTouch, Daniels told a friend and fellow adult performer, Randy Spears — whose given name is Gregory Deuschle — about her affair with Trump while it was still in progress in 2006. Spears, who has since retired from the adult entertainment business, verified Daniels’s account for InTouch, adding details of what Daniels told him about the relationship.
“She said, ‘It was almost like he was so taken with me that I could move him around like a puppet,'” Spears told InTouch in 2011.
In a now-famous exchange during their final presidential debate, Clinton accused Trump directly of acting as a “puppet” for Putin following Trump’s declaration that Putin had “no respect” for Clinton.
“Well, that’s because he’d rather have a puppet as president of the United States,” Clinton replied, apparently enraging Trump.
“No puppet. No puppet,” the then-candidate responded angrily. “You’re the puppet! No, you’re the puppet!”
But in his relationship with Daniels, according to the InTouch article, Trump was “smitten” with the veteran of nearly 300 explicit videos, who also appeared in the 2005 Steve Carell comedy, The 40 Year Old Virgin. Trump allegedly referred to Daniels with the term of affection, “honeybunch,” and even promised her a role on his reality TV show, Celebrity Apprentice, according to the interview.
In one instance, Trump reportedly told the then-27-year-old Daniels that she reminded him of his daughter, Ivanka Trump. Daniels is slightly more than two years older than Ivanka Trump.
Just a reminder that Hillary was right all along about Trump… he’s a puppet
— ?RiotWomenn? (@riotwomennn) January 18, 2018
Media reports emerged last week that, also in October of 2016, as Daniels was speaking to journalists about going public with her story of the Trump sexual affair, Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, arranged a $130,000 payment to the adult film star to guarantee her silence. Daniels has not spoken to any media outlet about the affair since that time.
But InTouch Weekly was far from the only media outlet that was aware of the story linking Daniels and Trump in a prolonged extramarital sexual relationship. Several other media outlets were also aware of the story during the 2016 presidential campaign, but chose not to publish the porn star’s allegations before she allegedly received the hush money payoff from Trump’s lawyer.
Fox News, which first established itself as a national news media force in the 1990s by relentlessly covering the Bill Clinton affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, had a story on file that included on-the-record statements by Daniels’s then-manager and others who knew Daniels, confirming her relationship with Trump. But Fox chose to bury the story and never reported on the affair during the 2016 election cycle.
Reporters at ABC News, Slate, and the Daily Beast online magazine also were in possession of details regarding Daniels and Trump’s affair, but held back on publishing until just last week, 14 months after the election that sent Trump to the White House.
