Donald J. Trump, the onetime president, and Stormy Daniels, the longtime porn star, despise one another.
But when Ms. Daniels returned to the witness stand at Mr. Trump’s criminal trial on Thursday, his lawyers made them sound a lot alike.
During Thursday’s grueling cross-examination, Mr. Trump’s lawyers sought to discredit Ms. Daniels as a money-grubbing extortionist who used a passing proximity to Mr. Trump to attain fame and riches.
But the more the defense assailed her self-promoting merchandise and online screeds, the more Ms. Daniels resembled the man she was testifying against: a master of marketing, a savant of social-media scorn.
“Not unlike Mr. Trump,” she said on the stand, though unlike him, she did it without the power and platform of the presidency.
Persons:
Donald J, Trump, Stormy Daniels, Daniels, Ms, grubbing, ”