“I don’t think anyone’s ever spoken to him like that.”

Stephanie Clifford was talking, on “60 Minutes,” about her alleged sexual encounter with Donald J. Trump in 2006. Specifically, the pornographic film actress and director, who goes by the name Stormy Daniels, was describing the moment when she suggested spanking Mr. Trump with a magazine that had his picture on the cover. (According to her, he acquiesced.)

But she could just as well have been describing the way she has told her story (which representatives for President Trump have denied). None of Mr. Trump’s many media antagonists have taken him on in quite this way, on his own terms, using some of the same tactics he did as a celebrity, candidate and president.

Others have come at Mr. Trump with indignation, righteousness and appeals to decency. Ms. Clifford swatted Mr. Trump with a rolled-up network newsmagazine.

Speaking to Anderson Cooper, Ms. Daniels was direct and conversational. She had playful one-liners. (“You didn’t even buy me breakfast,” she told Mr. Cooper.) She told a story. (Describing how she said Mr. Trump awaited her on the edge of a hotel bed — “perched” — she mimed his sitting position and bearing.)