Has Stormy Daniels spanked Trump at his own game?
1. Shamelessness has its advantages. Trump typically rattles his opponents with character attacks (remember "Crooked Hillary"?), even if he has to turn to phony conspiracy theories -- like challenging Barack Obama's birth certificate -- despite a lack of evidence to back them up.
But Daniels takes the opposite approach. Unlike politicians trying to protect their blue-ribbon reputations, she claims no blue-ribbon reputation to protect. She is what she is, a writer, director and performer in pornographic movies. Her unabashed candor at a time when Trump won't even acknowledge her existence except through spokespeople is refreshing in the world of politicians and other media celebrities.
2. Roll the trolls. She not only refuses to be intimidated by foulmouthed Twitter trolls and other critics, she effortlessly turns their trash into gold with responses that have become a binge-worthy reality show of their own.
When one woman tweeted, "@StormyDaniels Slut," she responded simply, "Yes."
In another response to a Twitter put-down, she tweeted, "At least the sewer won't reject you although you're probably used to rejection by now."
As Trump demonstrates with his rally speeches, which sound like rambling auditions for a Las Vegas stand-up comedy act, you can get a lot of mileage with humor, depending on the audience you're trying to reach -- or skewer.
3. Not a "victim." Even though her charges against Trump sound at first blush like the harassment and sexual assault charges that brought down moviemaker Harvey Weinstein and ignited the #MeToo movement, Daniels has repeatedly pointed out that "I'm not a 'me too.' "
Wisely she took responsibility for her own actions, even when she says she realized she had put herself where she had not intended to be, Trump's bed.
"I never said I was a victim," she said on "60 Minutes." "I think trying to use me to further someone else's agenda does horrible damage to people who are true victims."
She has also refused to be intimidated by those who charge that she's only trying to enhance her income. If you could be paid more for doing the same thing you've always done, she asks, then why not?
Why not, indeed. Interestingly, as the world turned to Twitter to see what Trump might tweet the next morning, he maintained an unusual Twitter silence regarding Daniels except for one unusually vague message Monday morning:
"So much Fake News. Never been more voluminous or more inaccurate," it said. "But through it all, our country is doing great!"
Right. Just great. How well our country's president is doing sounds like another story.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
(c) 2018 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
