With the ascent of Donald Trump to power, a Twitter troll came to occupy the White House. He had built up his reputation prior to taking power via online and in-person trolling, claiming, for instance, that President Barack Obama might not have been born in the United States after all.
Since taking office, he has hardly let up with his Twitter trolling, routinely taking to the social media platform to go after his political opponents. He routinely spouts nonsense both on the platform and in real life.
The president’s fellow Twitter trolls remain out in force, although there’s now an increased awareness of the possibility for trolling to be carried out by hostile foreign government actors, which changes the game somewhat.
This week, one Twitter troll identifying themselves as a supporter of the president went after adult film star Stormy Daniels, who alleges an extramarital affair with the president, and Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, shot back perfectly.
Daniels has rocketed to the front of the national political conversation not just because of her allegations of an affair with the president. In addition to that, back in 2016, the Trump team got her to sign a nondisclosure agreement covering the alleged affair, concurrently giving her $130,000 in hush money.
Against that backdrop, the respective parties’ teams are currently engaged in a protracted legal battle. Daniels alleges that the NDA is invalid because the president himself never signed it; while the Trump team wants tens of millions of dollars in damages from the adult film star for supposedly violating the agreement.
Besides the salacious aspect to the story, some have also suggested that the hush money payment, meant to prop up Trump’s presidential campaign through keeping Daniels silent, broke campaign finance law.
Although Daniels has attracted plenty of public scrutiny, the president has so far stayed pretty much silent about the whole issue. That does not mean, however, that his devoted Twitter trolls haven’t taken it upon themselves to go after Daniels.
This Sunday, a Twitter user named Angela Chochi wrote:
‘I think you give up your
#MeToo card when you are a porn star#stormy daniels.’
In response, Daniels shut down the troll, writing:
‘You are implying that women with certain jobs cannot be assaulted. This is a disgusting and terrifying thought process. For the record, I have stated numerous times that I am not claiming a “#metoo card” but I see you are definitely flying your asshat flag.’
Indeed; she has never sought to identify herself as a victim of harassment or assault at the hands of the president. Instead, she has simply sought the freedom to tell her story in the face of attempts by the president’s team to silence her.
There are, however, other women who credibly allege to have suffered harassment and/or assault at the hands of Donald Trump. He has denied the allegations, but they are bolstered by the president himself having been caught on tape bragging about his supposed freedom to commit sexual assault.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl5HJBnPitU&t=2s
Despite this, Donald Trump remains in office as president for the time being.
Check out Twitter’s response to Daniels taking down this Twitter troll below. The majority of commenters were on Daniels’ side.
Featured Image via Tom Williams/Roll Call/Getty Images
