# Stormy Daniels--why exactly $130,000? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [April 29, 2024, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912 "2024-04-29T11:00:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/1 "2024-04-29T11:00:35Z")
Everybody is talking about the legal aspects of Trump’s court case: whether the hush payments qualify as a felony or a misdemeanor , how were the checks recorded, etc,etc. But nobody is talking about one really peculiar issue: the amount of the payment. Exactly $130,000. Not an even 100,000 not 150,000, etc… So first, I have an FQ question: How did she and Trump agree on this sum? And, more importantly: an IMHO question: Would you agree with this sum if you were Ms. Daniels? It seems to me that she’s the one with all the power here, and can set her own terms for any agreement. Mr. Trump was known as the richest man in America, and she had nothing to hide. So why did she accept $130 for the original non-disclosure agreement? A mere 130,000 dollars isn’t that much money anyway, right? It will barely get you an entry-level Porsche without the trim package. Seems like a bad deal to me. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/2 "2024-04-29T11:26:20Z")
It’s a lot of money for people who have never had that kind of money at one time in their entire life. She was a working class porn actress, not some big name star. I’d guess that she at most made like $5-$8K in her prime for a movie and that the work was few and far between. And to her it wasn’t a big deal just to keep her mouth shut about the affair, easy money. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/3 "2024-04-29T11:27:58Z")
Trump is the sort of “billionaire” who, when their pornstar mistress demands $150,000 to keep quiet, counters with $100,000, eventually accepting her counter of $130,000. He probably regrets this and thinks he should have gotten her down to $128,500. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/4 "2024-04-29T11:33:19Z")
43,000 an inch? Sry. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/5 "2024-04-29T11:40:58Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > It’s a lot of money for people who have never had that kind of money at one time in their entire life There’s a line that’s been stuck in my head forever, I’ll swear it was from The Sopranos. Specifically, I’d swear it was when Tony gave Janice $3000 and she said ‘why $3000?’ to which he replied “Because that’s what I think you think is a lot of money”. To this day, whenever I hear someone ask a question like the OP’s, that’s where my head goes. Essentially, it’s an amount of money large enough that the recipient will be happy but little more than a slap on the wrist to the giver. I’ve never been able to find that quote anywhere, Sopranos or otherwise. However, in the actual scene, Janice requests $3k and when asked where she came up with that number, she replies “I thought it was a number you’d say yes too”. IIRC from the tapes, Trump and Co batted around a few numbers, all in the vicinity of $130k and that’s just where they landed. It does also kinda sound like it was sorta kinda meant to put her at $100,000 after she she paid taxes on it. Though I have a hard time believing that Trump would’ve taken something like income taxes into consideration here. My guess is that Trump thinks that Stormy thinks $130,000 is a lot of money. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/6 "2024-04-29T15:16:33Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Mr. Trump was known as the richest man in America, … Not even close. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/7 "2024-04-29T23:11:46Z")
It sounds like someone wanted to net $100k after paying the lawyer 1/3, wanted a round number and was bad at math. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/8 "2024-04-29T23:25:31Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Not even close. Exactly. He has long _projected_ an image of an exceptionally wealthy person (and of an exceptionally successful businessman), and he desperately wants people to believe that he is, in fact, these things. But, it’s been apparent, for some time, that he is not actually as wealthy as he projects, and he is undeniably not among the very wealthiest people in America. This Forbes article, from last fall, estimates Trump’s net worth, at that time, to have been around $2.6 billion (and having declined substantially from the year before); he didn’t even make their top 400. Even in 2016, when his financial situation was a lot better than it is today, he wasn’t anywhere near the top of the Forbes list: [he was at #156, with an estimated net worth of $3.7 billion](https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2016/10/04/forbes-400-the-full-list-of-the-richest-people-in-america-2016/?sh=2e2d45ae22f4). > **[Forbes 400 2023](https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/)** > > The Forbes 400 is the definitive list of the richest Americans, ranking the country’s wealthiest billionaires by their net worths. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/9 "2024-04-29T23:30:03Z")
The joke I’ve heard was that it $1000 a second. I find it an oddly low number too. If I were Ms Daniels’ negotiator, I think I could have gotten a quarter mil. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/10 "2024-04-30T00:24:58Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Trump is the sort of “billionaire” who, when their pornstar mistress demands $150,000 to keep quiet, counters with $100,000, eventually accepting her counter of $130,000. > > He probably regrets this and thinks he should have gotten her down to $128,500. This is exactly what I was thinking. He probably told Cohen “Start at 100, but you can go as high as 130, and not a penny more!” ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/11 "2024-04-30T00:30:02Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > 43,000 an inch? > Sry. I was going to say a quarter million per inch. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/12 "2024-04-30T00:44:34Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I was going to say a quarter million per inch… That doesn’t leave mushroom for negotiation. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/13 "2024-04-30T00:45:25Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > And, more importantly: an IMHO question: > Would you agree with this sum if you were Ms. Daniels? I’m not a perfect human being, but I can say that there is no amount that would get me to accept hush money. My dignity is not for sale, and neither is my freedom of speech. Now, if my family was starving, the answer would be different. But my family is fine, and, I expect the same if true for Ms. Daniel’s child. It was more wrong to pay her hush money than for her to accept it. But both were wrong, and the amount is irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/14 "2024-04-30T01:51:09Z")
> [@Folly](#): > > That doesn’t leave mushroom for negotiation. We saw what you did there! ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/15 "2024-04-30T01:51:14Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > It was more wrong to pay her hush money than for her to accept it. Would it have been more, less, or equally wrong for her to sell the story for publication instead of selling it to AMI? ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/16 "2024-04-30T02:01:23Z")
> [@CaveMike](#): > > Would it have been more, less, or equally wrong for her to sell the story for publication instead of selling it to AMI? I’m not crazy about checkbook journalism, but I cannot say it is wrong on the part of the interviewee. I haven’t read her book, but it got at least one good review: [A porn star’s new book about her alleged affair with Donald Trump ranks with the best](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/09/30/stormy-daniels-memoir-220804/) Nothing wrong with being paid for that. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/17 "2024-04-30T03:11:37Z")
What’s your point though? She’s a _porn star_, so it’s not like she’s exactly a pillar of the community here. Meanwhile, Trump was literally running for President when this all went down. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/18 "2024-04-30T03:15:26Z")
What do you mean? She’s a member of an ancient and respectable profession. As is Melania. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/19 "2024-04-30T03:59:23Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > It’s a lot of money for people who have never had that kind of money at one time in their entire life. She was a working class porn actress, not some big name star. I’d guess that she at most made like $5-$8K in her prime for a movie and that the work was few and far between. I suspect she’s made more from stripping and escorting than she did from any individual movie. > [@Joey\_P](#): > > Specifically, I’d swear it was when Tony gave Janice $3000 and she said ‘why $3000?’ to which he replied “Because that’s what I think you think is a lot of money”. Tony was asking Janice to answer some very sensitive questions about a former lover and when she balked he asked how much. She said something like $5,000 very quickly and Tony asked her how she arrivedat that figure so quickly. She replied with something like, “Because it’s an amount I thought you’d pay” and he nodded in agreement. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2024, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912/20 "2024-04-30T10:01:26Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > As is Melania. This seems unnecessary. I know it’s off-topic, but I never understood the disdain people have for “gold diggers.” Provided everyone knows what’s going on (as Trump surely did) what’s the harm? Not that there’s anything wrong with the oldest profession. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stormy-daniels-why-exactly-130-000/1000912.md?page=2)