The new Stormy Daniels documentary, Stormy, which began streaming on Peacock today, includes a scene in which the adult film star describes, in her own words, the now-infamous encounter she had with former President Donald Trump in 2006. And though she’s told the story many times before—including in here 2018 book, Full Disclosure—hearing Daniels tell it in the documentary puts the so-called “affair” in a much darker light. It’s one that suggests Daniels was, if not assaulted (and she maintains to this day it was not rape), at the very least, coerced into sex she didn’t want to have.
About 15 minutes into the documentary— which was directed by Sarah Gibson and executive produced by Judd Apatow—Daniels recalls her encounter with Trump at Lake Tahoe in July 2006. She was working at a charity golf tournament, through her adult film company, Wicked Pictures. Trump was an attendee and took an interest in her. The feeling was not mutual, says Daniels.
“Donald Trump was a goofy reality TV star,” she tells the camera. “He was like, 60, and I was 27, just doing my job.”
When Daniels heard that Trump had requested a dinner with her, she initially wanted to say no—but, she says, her publicist convinced her to go. Daniels recalls that she was supposed to meet Trump at a restaurant in the hotel, but on the night of the dinner—in a move that eerily echoes the playbook of convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein—he suggested she meet at his hotel room, and they would head down to the restaurant together.
“I walked in, and he wasn’t dressed for dinner yet. He was in black silk pajamas—which I promptly made fun of him for, and told him to go put on some fucking clothes,” Daniels says.
She says Trump complied with her request, and that the two then had a normal, non-sexual conversation about her career aspirations as a film director. She recalls that Trump told her he would get her a role on The Celebrity Apprentice, to give her a chance to shift her public image away from being a porn star and toward being a film director.
“He told me I reminded him of his daughter. I felt like he was sympathetic to me. Ivanka’s beautiful and she’s blonde, and I’m sure she’s had people assume she’s an idiot,” Daniels says. “I thought we had this mutual respect.”
That all changed when Daniels used the bathroom in Trump’s suite.”It was so crazy when, having no red flags whatsoever in this conversation, I came out of a bathroom to find myself cornered. I don’t remember how I got on the bed. The next thing I know, it was humping away and telling me how great I was. It was awful. But I didn’t say ‘no.'”
Later in the documentary, Daniels says she felt “misled” and “tricked” by Trump that night. But, she added, “I’ve maintained it wasn’t rape in any fashion. But I didn’t say ‘no,’ because I was 9 years old again. The last thing I remember was like, ‘I could totally take him if I want to scream or fight, but I’m not supposed to act like that. There’s that whole dynamic, because I’m from the south, that he was an elder, and a man, and I was taught to show respect and be a good girl.”
Put another way, Daniels is describing rape culture. She feels she wasn’t a victim of sexual assault—but it’s hard not to hear it that way, listening to her tell her story. Especially hearing that Daniels still carries guilt and shame; an all too common trait among sexual assault survivors. “To this day, I blame myself, and I have not forgiven myself, because I didn’t shut his ass down in that moment, to maybe make him pause before he tried it with someone else.”
Since the Daniels scandal came to light, Trump has been accused in court of allegedly sexually abusing and raping writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s, the former of which a jury has found him liable for. At least 26 total women have accused Trump of some form of sexual misconduct.
Stormy is now streaming on Peacock.
If you or someone you know needs to reach out about sexual abuse or assault, RAINN is available 24/7 at 800-656-HOPE (4673), or online at RAINN.org.