While Israel’s war against Palestine and the Russian invasion of Ukraine still make above-the-fold news here in the US – mostly in the hyperbolic navel-gazing form of whether or not the former will tank Biden’s chances in this year’s election and thus end democracy as we know it, the latter whether the far-right wing of Congress will eventually withhold arms sales to Ukraine and thus tank its existence – it’s not the news. No, far more riveting than body counts a world away seems to be the real-life soap opera unfolding in a Manhattan courtroom, the recent star of which has been not the corrupt businessman and reality tv star on trial, but the savvy businesswoman and porn star at the center of the former president’s twisty election interference scheming.
And while several revelations about the various interactions between The Donald and Stormy Daniels (born Stephanie Clifford, an even better name for an adult entertainer I always thought) stood out – and the more explicit ones thankfully halted by the judge before images of a near-naked Trump could become seared into our collective unconscious, resulting in a long national nightmare for us all – one admission from Daniels shook me to the core. “I was ashamed” Daniels said of having sex with the lech who told her that she reminded him of his daughter. (The Art of the Come-On Line this is not.)
And while the idea that a sex industry vet could ever experience shame after engaging in consensual sex (well, kinda sorta – as Daniels pointed out the coercive power imbalance between herself and the fake mogul) may sound ridiculous to a tone-deaf defense lawyer (that would be Susan Necheles, who cross-examined Daniels in a clunky, 1950s “blame the victim for wearing tight clothing” fashion that certainly didn’t help his case), such embarrassment is something I’d wager all victims of cons, if not porn stars, can relate to.
Remember, Trump is on trial for falsifying business records in order to cover up hush money payments he made to kill Daniels’s story. He never actually paid Daniels for the sex itself. Which means that Daniels, a sharp professional, somehow got swindled into screwing a fat old man, decades her senior, for free.
Thus, it’s only natural that Daniels felt taken advantage of immediately after the encounter, the shame of a proud hustler inexplicably having just been hustled.
And while we’re still months, if not years, away from any verdict, one conclusion is already crystal clear. If the unrepentant grifter, currently facing two indictments on state charges (the aforementioned in New York and another in Georgia, where the prosecutor is battling her own sex scandal – you can’t make this stuff up) and two on federal charges (Florida and DC), for a total of 88 felony counts, is returned to the White House come November, good Americans from coast to coast will feel her shame as well.
Images: Gage Skidmore, Alan and Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com
