Stormy Daniels hits out at Trump by saying ‘real men’ respond to testimony by taking the stand

It is currently unclear whether Mr Trump will testify as part of his defense at hush money trial

Stormy Daniel has taunted Donald Trump about “real men” taking the witness stand, just a few hours after she finished testifying against the former president in his Manhattan hush money trial.

“Real men respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking the stand in court. Oh...wait. Nevermind,” she wrote on X.

Her comments came after Mr Trump blasted the judge in the case for refusing a request by his attorneys for a mistrial based on Ms Daniels’ testimony.

The former president’s attorney Todd Blanche moved for a mistrial on Thursday, arguing that Ms Daniel had changed her story and been allowed to testify about matters that were irrelevant to the case.

He also asked the judge to waive Mr Trump’s gag order to allow him to respond to her testimony publicly. Judge Juan Merchan denied both requests.

“My concern is not just with protecting Ms Daniels or a witness who has already testified. My concern is protecting the integrity of the proceedings as a whole,” Judge Merchan said of the gag order request.

Mr Trump slammed the judge’s decision on Thursday, calling it “a disgrace.”

Former President Donald Trump gestures as he walks to the courtroom following a break in his trial at Manhattan criminal court on Thursday (Angela Weiss via AP)

“I’m innocent and I’m being held in this court with a corrupt judge,” he told reporters at the courthouse.

But Ms Daniels argued he should respond to her testimony by taking the stand. It is currently unclear whether Mr Trump will testify as part of his defense. If he were to testify, he would open himself up to cross-examination by prosecutors.

During her testimony, Ms Daniels was grilled by Mr Trump’s attorney Susan Necheles over the $130,000 nondisclosure agreement she signed with Trump’s then-attorney Michael Cohen near the close of the 2016 election.

The payment is at the centre of Mr Trump’s trial, in which he is accused of falsifying business records in an alleged bid to cover up the hush money payment to Ms Daniels to ensure her silence over an extramarital affair she alleges they had a decade earlier.

Mr Trump has denied the affair and all the charges against him.

Ms Necheles attempted to poke holes in Ms Daniels’ now-sworn statements about an alleged sexual encounter she claims she had with Mr Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel room in 2006, including her having said in a 2011 interview that she and Mr Trump had dinner together – while she now maintains they never actually ate.

“I had dinner in the room, but we never got any food, and we never ate anything,” Ms Daniels said. Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger noted on re-direct examination that the article with the 2011 interview said the piece had been “lightly edited.”

Ms Necheles also sought to dispute Ms Daniels’ claims that she was scared when she saw Mr Trump waiting for her in bed in a T-shirt and boxers after she got out of the bathroom, suggesting that the appearance of Mr Trump in his underwear asking for sex shouldn’t have shocked her because she would be used to seeing naked men in her line of work.

“You’ve acted and had sex in over 200 porn movies, right?” she said. “And there are naked men and naked women having sex in those movies? … But according to you, seeing a man sitting on a bed in a T-shirt and boxer shorts was so upsetting you became light-headed and almost fainted?”

“When you’re not expecting a man twice your age, yes,” Ms Daniels fired back.

In another exchange, Ms Necheles sought to discredit Ms Daniels’ testimony by suggesting that her story about the alleged sexual encounter was entirely made up.

“This was your career for over 20 years, writing, acting, and directing sex films,” Ms Necheles asked. “You have a lot of experience making phony stories about sex appear real, right?”

But Ms Daniels appeared unflappable in the face of the grilling, firing quips back at Ms Necheles.

“Wow,” Ms Daniel replied, pausing to laugh.

“That’s not how I would put it,” she said. “The sex in those films is very much real – just like in that hotel room.”

She added: “If that story were untrue, I would have written it to be a lot better.”