One under-discussed moment of the underwhelming “60 Minutes” interview with Stormy Daniels came as the porn star described her alleged sexual relationship with Donald Trump as a “business deal.”
In the context of another exchange she shared with Anderson Cooper, there’s an important point to be made here. Early in the broadcast, Daniels went out of her way to draw a clear line between herself and the many women who have stepped forward with allegations of sexual misconduct during the #MeToo movement:
Cooper asked Daniels later in the interview whether she believed at the time Trump was “dangling” the possibility of casting her on “The Apprentice” to “keep [her] coming back” to him.
“Did you view it as this is a potential opportunity. ‘I’m gonna see where it goes?'” Cooper inquired. Daniels, to her credit, seems to have been remarkably honest about her intentions regarding the alleged relationship in response. “I thought of it as a business deal,” she replied.
When it comes to Daniels’ account, it could not be clearer that she consented fully to the alleged sexual encounter. In fact, by her own admission, she was deliberately using the alleged relationship for career advancement. She even described challenging Trump’s flirting techniques, saying he was “taken back” by her assertiveness. “I don’t think anyone’s ever spoken to him like that, especially, you know, a young woman who looked like me,” Daniels claimed, further alleging that he subsequently told her she was “smart and beautiful, and a woman to be reckoned with.”
Certainly Daniels’ revelation that she believed she “had it coming for making a bad decision for going to someone’s room alone” and “deserved” to be pressured into sex with Trump for making a “bad decision” is troubling, and Trump never should have put her in that situation if the accusations are accurate. But even Daniels herself said the alleged intercourse was “entirely consensual.”
That’s not to condone the way Trump is alleged to have treated Daniels (and first lady Melania Trump) in the alleged affair and cover-up, but to include Daniels in #MeToo is to strip her of her agency. If her story is true, she made a decision to have sex with a man she was not attracted to in order to advance her career.
