Allegations that President Donald Trump had sex with a former adult film actress in 2006 have brought swift denials from both the president and the actress, Stephanie Clifford, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels. Accusations of the pair’s alleged sexual relationship were first raised by The Wall Street Journal, which also reported that Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 one month before the 2016 presidential election as part of a nondisclosure agreement.
Daniels, though, sat for an interview with “In Touch” magazine in 2011 – predating her nondisclosure agreement – where she discussed at length and in explicit detail her sexual encounter with the future president. “In Touch” said Daniels took and passed a polygraph test, and the magazine also corroborated the actress’s story with some of Daniels’ friends. On Friday, the magazine published a full transcript of her interview, the details of which have not been independently verified by POLITICO.
Here are eight of the most eye-catching details from Daniels’ relationship with the president.
Trump showered Daniels with promises and invitations
At their first meeting in Trump’s hotel room in Reno, Nevada, the president promised to get Daniels a spot on his then-hit reality TV show, “The Apprentice.” Daniels recalled that Trump told her that “people would think you’re just this idiot with blond hair and big boobs. You would be perfect for it because you’re such a smart businesswoman.” Daniels, skeptical that Trump could persuade NBC to allow a porn star on one of their most popular shows, told him “you can’t. I dare you.”
The adult film star also recalled that Trump at one point promised her a condo in Trump Tower Tampa, a planned high rise to which the president had lent naming rights that was never built, leaving buyers who had put down deposits out millions of dollars. The president also invited Daniels to a Los Angeles launch party for Trump Vodka and to a Miss USA pageant. Daniels said Trump repeatedly told her during phone calls that “if you ever need anything, let me know.”
Trump hates sharks
During one visit with Trump in a private bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Daniels said the president was engrossed by the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, which was on TV while they ate dinner and which the two watched after they had finished eating.
“He is obsessed with sharks. Terrified of sharks. He was like, ‘I donate to all these charities and I would never donate to any charity that helps sharks. I hope all the sharks die,’” Daniels recalled. “He was like riveted. He was like obsessed. It’s so strange, I know.”
Trump compared Daniels to his daughter (but it’s not clear which one)
Trump almost never talked about his family, Daniels told “In Touch,” with the exception of his daughter, who she said the president bragged about quite a bit. The adult actress did not specify in the interview with of the president’s two daughters, Ivanka Trump or Tiffany Trump, he had compared her to.
“He bragged about his daughter quite a bit though. He was very proud of her, which is nice. He told me once that I was someone to be reckoned with, beautiful and smart just like his daughter,” Daniels said. “She is smart and beautiful, so I guess that’s a compliment.”
Trump has previously raised eyebrows with remarks about Ivanka Trump, including in a 2006 appearance on ABC’s “The View,” where he said “if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”
Daniels wasn’t attracted to Trump
Asked if she was attracted to the president, Daniels replied “would you be?” but added that she was “fascinated” by him. She told “In Touch” that she expected that their initial conversation, much of which focused on the non-sexual aspects of her line of work, might lead to sex.
“I was definitely stimulated. We had a really good banter,” she said. “Good conversation for a couple hours. I could tell he was nice, intelligent in conversation.”
Sex with Trump was “textbook generic” but “wasn’t bad” either
“The sex was nothing crazy. He wasn’t like, chain me to the bed or anything. It was one position. I can definitely describe his junk perfectly, if I ever have to. He definitely seemed smitten after that,” Daniels said of her rendezvous with Trump.
The pair’s first sexual encounter in Trump’s Reno, Nevada, hotel room is the only one Daniels discussed in the interview. She detailed other meetings with Trump in which the two did not have sex but did not specifically say whether their sexual activity together had been limited to just the one night.
Daniels did say that the two did not use a condom, in part because she has a latex allergy and did not have a latex-free condom with her.
“It was textbook generic. It wasn’t like, “Oh my God, I love you.” He wasn’t like Fabio or anything. He wasn’t trying to have, like, porn sex,” she recalled. “Nothing freaky. Like, ‘Oh yeah, that feels good. That’s amazing.’ You know. It was one position, what you would expect someone his age to do. It wasn’t bad. Don’t get me wrong.”
After they had sex, Trump asked for Daniels’ autograph
The president had one of Daniels’ DVDs in his room with him, which he asked her to sign for him after the two had sex. Daniels guessed that Trump had gotten the DVD from a gift bag handed out at a charity golf tournament where she was doing an appearance for her company.
Trump quickly dismissed discussion of his wife, Melania
Daniels said she knew Trump was married when they had their sexual encounter but did not think much of it at the time. She said she did ask about Melania Trump, who had just given birth to the couple’s son, Barron Trump, months earlier.
“I mentioned her. I was like, ‘Yeah, what about your wife?’ He goes, ‘Oh, don’t worry about her. Quickly, quickly changed the subject,” Daniels said.
The adult film actress went on to say that she never saw Melania Trump at any of her future encounters with the president and has never seen the first lady in person.
Trump called Daniels regularly and called her “honeybunch”
In the aftermath of their first meeting, Daniels said Trump called her every 10 days or so and called her by a pet name, “honeybunch.” She said she also had the direct phone numbers for his office line, answered by his longtime secretary Rhona Graff, and his bodyguard, who Daniels identified as “Keith” – likely Keith Schiller, who served as Trump’s bodyguard and “head of Oval Office operations” who left the White House last September.
Daniels said Trump would always take her calls, or quickly call her back if he was on the other line or away from a phone. His incoming calls always arrived from a blocked number, she said. Their phone conversations stopped, Daniels told the magazine, when she stopped picking up calls from unfamiliar numbers.
