BALTIMORE — That the endless, what-next drama of the Trump presidency would take a side trip down a bumpy road to a nudie bar in industrial Baltimore may at this point be unsurprising.
Nonetheless, hundreds of gawkers are expected to flock to Fantasies strip club Thursday night, and again on Friday and Saturday, to see Stormy Daniels bare all — part of a multi-city tour capitalizing on her recent notoriety not so much as an adult film actress and director but as the plaintiff in a lawsuit against her alleged one-time paramour, President Donald J. Trump.
“She’s a person of interest,” Fantasies bartender and manager Renata Welsh said, with some understatement. “She’s all over the news. Everyone wants to see her. A guy asked me the other day, ‘Who do you think is lying, him or her?’ ”
That is the question, indeed. More people than can fit into Fantasies (capacity: 265), and who might have no interest in seeing her there in the flesh, are curious about what Daniels will reveal — about Trump.
Federal investigators have raided the home and office of Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Cohen has said he paid Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket shortly before the 2016 election as part of a nondisclosure agreement to keep her silent about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump that she says led to an affair — even as Cohen added that the president “vehemently denies” it happened. Trump himself has said he did not know about the payment to Daniels. The 39-year-old performer, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is cooperating with the investigators.
She has also kept up a steady stream of appearances, clad and otherwise. On Monday, she attended a federal court hearing in New York for Cohen, who was trying to protect files seized in the raid, which include some related to the nondisclosure agreement Daniels signed. Daniels has sued Trump to void the agreement, and Cohen for defamation for insinuating that she lied about the affair.
Daniels’ attorney said she was not be available to speak for this article. She was a guest on “The View” on Tuesday, and released a sketch of the man she says threatened her to keep her quiet about Trump. Her appearance last month on “60 Minutes” was the 50-year-old show’s highest-rated ever.
In such appearances, she comes off as poised, straightforward and, polling shows, believable: A POLITICO/Morning Consult poll conducted after the “60 Minutes” broadcast found that 56 percent believe Daniels and Trump had an affair. By contrast, just 36 percent said they believe Trump is honest.
And in a now familiar pattern, the whole shebang doesn’t seem to have changed anything very much, at least at the time of the poll: It found Trump’s approval rating had dropped just two points, to 42 percent, and 46 percent said the Daniels allegations didn’t change their view of him.
Those who knew Daniels before Trump say they are not surprised by how deftly she has handled the overwhelming attention — some of it highly negative, especially online — and continued to take care of business. Rather than shrink from the often harsh spotlight, she has used it to book multiple appearances, and to get paid, strip club representatives said, much more than in the past.
As “she should be,” said Stacy Saccal, general manager of Ultra Gentlemen’s Club in West Palm Beach, Fla. Saccal declined to say how much Daniels was paid to perform on April 13 and 14 at the club.
Patrons packed the club, paying $25 or $35 in cover charges, $50 for seats around the stage, $40 for an autograph and $600 to $1,000 for VIP rooms. Ultra printed some T-shirts to sell for $25 as well, bearing such slogans as “hanky spanky,” a reference to Daniels’ saying on “60 Minutes” that she playfully swatted Trump with a rolled-up magazine he was showing her that had his face on the cover.
A handful of Trump supporters protested outside, Saccal said, but inside it was all good.
“She’s a great performer,” Saccal said. “She was fun and engaged the crowd. She makes a good entrance and is amazing on stage.”