March 20, 2023

Ron DeSantis Really Wants to Remind You That Trump Allegedly Paid Off a Porn Star

The Florida governor finally weighs in on Trump’s potential indictment.

Phil Sears/AP

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Amid pressure to denounce a New York prosecutor who might soon indict Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis has finally decided to weigh in on the hush-money case swirling around the former president. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, DeSantis insisted, is a politically motivated “Soros-funded prosecutor” seeking to weaponize his office against a political enemy. 

But almost immediately after ticking off that tired MAGA talking point, DeSantis—a potential Trump rival for the GOP presidential nomination— seemed to go out of his way to describe the lurid allegations at the center of the case. In doing so, the Florida governor appeared pretty eager to remind Americans that Trump allegedly slept with a porn actress. (Trump denies there was any sexual affair.)

“I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair, I just can’t speak to that,” DeSantis said, before weaving back into a swipe at the Manhattan DA that featured yet another gratuitous description of Trump’s alleged efforts to cover up his payments to Stormy Daniels.

“What I can speak to is if you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction, and he chooses to go back many, many years ago to try to do something about pornstar hush-money payments, that’s an example of pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office, and I think that that’s fundamentally wrong.”

Despite getting the condemnation of Bragg that they’d reportedly been demanding, Trump allies did not seem happy with DeSantis’ statement. 

I guess repeating the words “porn star” and “hush money”—in the run-up to what could be our very first indictment of a former president—is as good a political strategy as any.

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Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do. That’s why we need you right now. Please chip in to help close the gap.

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