Stormy Daniels has sealed Trump’s fate. How did a porn star become one of the most powerful people in politics?

One busy weekday night in May 2018, a Pittsburgh strip club dancer named Scarlet went to the bar for fries and ran into something unusual: a young man carrying a political non-fiction book conspicuously under his arm.

The book was Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff, about the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency, and the man – Isaac – was hoping that one of the other strippers would sign it for him.

“I’m not much of a strip club guy, but I had to come see this,” Isaac told The Pitt News as he waited in line behind a man carrying several bright red Trump hats.

These men were among the hundreds drawn to see porn performer Stormy Daniels as she danced across the country on her “Make America Horny Again” tour, closely followed by a political tempest over her alleged history with the serving president of the United States.

Just 10 minutes after the start of Ms Daniels’ first show in Pittsburgh, Mr Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani appeared to admit on Fox News that the mercurial tycoon had indeed authorised a hush money payment of $130,000 to his alleged ex-lover, contradicting previous denials.

Now Ms Daniels is again at the centre of a national firestorm as New York state prosecutors have brought charges against Mr Trump, marking the first criminal prosecution against a former president in US history.

Mr Trump has long denied an affair with Ms Daniels, and his lawyer has accused her of extortion. In a Truth Social post on 18 March, he described the allegations as “an old and fully debunked fairy tale” being exploited by “corrupt and highly political” Manhattan prosecutors.

He also upped the ante by predicting that he would be arrested on Tuesday (21 March) and calling for mass protests to “TAKE OUR NATION BACK”.  Tuesday came and went with no indictment. That day came and went, but the grand jury voted on Thursday 30 March to indict Mr Trump. Manhattan District attorney Alvin Bragg has vowed that he would not be intimidated by Mr Trump’s rhetoric.

Being convicted would not block Mr Trump from pursuing a second term in 2024, but could damage his chances, and would certainly make it harder for him to campaign if he is on trial, or barred from leaving New York state, or even in prison while the election is ongoing.

It is a moment that Ms Daniels, now 44, probably never imagined in 2006, when she allegedly had an affair with the businessman and reality star then best known for hosting The Apprentice and putting his name on everything from skyscrapers to steaks to casinos.

This is the story of how a woman at the crossroads of politics, business, and sex work – never quite as separate as American elites would like to believe – could end up sealing the downfall of the 45th US president.

“We will all get along just fine as soon as you realize that I am queen.” Those were the words printed beneath Stormy Daniels’ yearbook entry when she graduated from Scotlandville Magnet High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1997, according to The New York Times.

Back then she was known as Stephanie Gregory, a serious student with auburn hair from a “really bad neighbourhood” who liked horses and the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. Her real name now is Stephanie Clifford, after a previous husband.

“I wasn’t like the popular girl, and I wasn’t the jock, and I wasn’t the ditz. I was just sort of in the middle of the road,” Ms Daniels told The Times in a 2018 profile.

With good grades, she considered being a veterinarian, a writer, or a journalist, but a chance visit to a strip club at the age of 17 led to a guest performance and then regular gigs, in which she proved to be a talented and lucrative show-woman.

“We knew,” club employee Chuck Rolling told The Times. “She was moving in a direction that was bigger than us. We’re in Baton Rouge. We’re not even New Orleans.”

Business was good, allowing Ms Daniels to buy a house and car by the age of 23, according to an interview at the time. Yet she also expressed a fear that if she did not find some way of building a durable income, she could be left high and dry in middle age.

By all reports, Ms Daniels demonstrated a gift for self-promotion and snappy comebacks as she climbed the ranks and moved into pornography. She won industry awards and landed roles in mainstream reality TV shows, TV dramas, and then films such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up.

In some ways, Ms Daniels has much in common with Mr Trump. According to former colleagues, she has been canny about crafting and marketing her own image in pursuit of success, and as a film director she is reportedly unafraid of firing people or taking them to task when she feels it is warranted.

Xural.com