If there is one thing Stormy Daniels—the porn actress, self-proclaimed presidential mistress, and star of the “Make America Horny Again” striptease tour—isn’t known for, it’s subtlety. But on the New York City stop of the tour for her autobiography, Full Disclosure, she oozed just that.
Tucked away in a back room of the Museum of Sex in Midtown Manhattan, sporting jeans and a “Start a Revolution” T-shirt, Daniels signed copies of her 300-page tell-all for about 65 fans—some of whom lined up three hours in advance, according to museum staff.
One fan, Benjamin Bolger, drove up from Boston just to attend the event. He bought four copies of the book and asked to pose with Daniels not once but twice. Like many attendees at the event, the 42-year-old said he came out to support Daniels in her ongoing battle with President Donald Trump.
“She’s the only one who’s going to take down the Evil Empire,” Bolger told The Daily Beast, when asked why he made the 3 1/2-hour trek to see Daniels in the flesh.
“As a little kid growing up, I never thought the real-life Luke Skywalker would be a porn star,” he added. “But God bless her.”
Ever since Daniels went public about her alleged affair with Trump, this is what her once-scandalous career has become: Women throng her events, praising her as a resistance hero, and men stand in line next to them swearing they only came for political reasons. Two Chinese tourists who visited the event on Monday night said they’d instantly recognized Daniels’ name from U.S. news coverage but couldn’t understand why her book signing was hosted by the Museum of Sex. They had no idea about her career as a porn star.
If the new crowd of fans bothers her, however, Daniels doesn’t show it. Asked if she planned to write another book, the actress told The Daily Beast she thought she would. And according to one Museum of Sex employee, she personally requested to sign each fan’s copy of Full Disclosure individually, instead of pre-signing them before the event.
Another museum employee proudly displayed the photos Daniels took with her before the event, both of them flashing heavy-metal hand signs. (Daniels writes extensively in her book about touring with the metal band Pantera; the employee was a self-described “metal head.”)
Indeed, despite banning selfies from her book tour for security reasons, Daniels allowed museum staff to take photos of her with each guest, her deceptively small frame dwarfed under a trio of oversized disco balls hanging overhead.
One fan, Domenic Galletto, said he used the opportunity to give the actress his personal thanks.
“Thank you so much for what you’re doing for women everywhere,” Galletto, a 60-year-old transgender man, said he told her. “And I hope you bring down Trump.”