Donald Trump facing criminal charges and Stormy Daniels is sipping champagne

Donald Trump has been indicted by a grand jury, becoming the first US president to be charged with a crime.

Trump is reportedly facing dozens of charges over “hush money” payments to Stormy Daniels.

The bisexual adult star claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006. Trump denies this, but his lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 during the 2016 election campaign to keep quiet.

While this is not illegal, when Trump reimbursed Cohen the payment was noted as legal fees. This is a the centre of the charges facing Trump – prosecutors will reportedly argue that he falsified business records, a misdemeanour criminal offence in New York.

It’s also been reported that Trump could be charged with breaking election law.

The charges comes after Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg revived a lengthy investigation into the “hush money” payments, which have dogged Trump – and Daniels – since 2016.

Stormy Daniels recently told PinkNews the fall-out from the story led to the “worst five years of her life.

“I didn’t even get lemons, I got bad oranges – what do you do with that? There was a point where it was just flat-out overwhelming. I couldn’t go anywhere,” she said.

“I do have a thick skin because you have to if you work in porn. I’ve seen my butthole on a jumbotron. You have to have a sense of humour, but it was overwhelmingly vicious at first.”

After news of Donald Trump’s indictment broke, Daniels thanked supporters on Twitter and said she was drinking champagne.

Trump is expected to be arraigned in court on Tuesday (5 April).

While a court case could be wrapped up before the 2024 election, his indictment will no doubt shape his campaign.

Donald Trump has already launched his re-election bid on a bedrock of hate and transphobia.

Recent speeches have seen him attack LGBTQ+ rights. He’s promised to ban gnender-affirming healthcare for trans youth and push for a federal law recognising only two genders.

Ari Drennen, the LGBTQ+ programme director of Media Matters for America, recently told PinkNews that this “interesting departure from his first campaign” in 2016, when he presented himself as “being more favourable on LGBTQ issues”.

At one point during his first presidential run race, Trump said that trans people should “use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate”. He acknowledged: “There has been so little trouble.”

Drennen suggested the Republican party was already facing a “race to the bottom” for its presidential nomination. Trump is expected to go head-to-head with Florida Ron DeSantis, who she said has tried to define himself “as this kind of culture warrior”.

Trump being indicted, arrested and hauled in front of a court will no doubt fuel his culture war rhetoric even further.

He blamed “Thugs and Radical Left Monsters” for the indictment in a post on his Truth Social network.

“THIS IS AN ATTACK ON OUR COUNTRY THE LIKES OF WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE. IT IS LIKEWISE A CONTINUING ATTACK ON OUR ONCE FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS. THE USA IS NOW A THIRD WORLD NATION, A NATION IN SERIOUS DECLINE. SO SAD!” he added.

Trump also reposted an article titled “Democrats Want to Indict & Arrest President Trump. They Want a War? Let’s Give it to Them.”