Affair: July 2006

Years go by and people grow and mature, unless you’re Donald Trump. When you’re Donald Trump, you keep doing the same thing that gets you in trouble, but you just deny it when you’re caught. Enter Stephanie Clifford, a.k.a. Stormy Daniels — easily the most polarizing figure making waves in the political news world. Trump met the adult film star at the Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course in July 2006. Inviting Daniels back up to his room to see the AVN Best New Starlet’s work firsthand, the future president allegedly initiated a months-long affair with the rising actress (though they only had sex that one time, Daniels says). In 2011, reports of the affair began to circulate after The Dirty and Life & Style magazines published their own versions, with In Touch Weekly choosing to woodshed its Daniels interview after lawsuit threats by Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen. In January of this year, it came to light per Wall Street Journal reporting that Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 a month before the 2016 election through a company he had just created, barring her from speaking of the affair. Inadvertently, Cohen’s disclosure of the transaction breached the agreement, allowing Daniels to freely talk about how Trump likes to get spanked with a Forbes magazine.