--- title: Donald Trump to Stay Quiet on Stormy Daniels description: "I didn’t say he punches back on every single topic" canonical: https://time.com/5217712/white-house-donald-trump-stormy-daniels/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-27T20:08:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:47:30.715Z article:section: Politics og:title: Don't Expect Trump to Say Anything About Stormy Daniels, White House Says og:description: "I didn’t say he punches back on every single topic" og:url: https://time.com/5217712/white-house-donald-trump-stormy-daniels/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc82f034a71b99d6/69892bf997cdffd5e76b4c6e/gettyimages-9366137921.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1920 og:image:height: 1080 og:image:alt: 60 Minutes og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Don't Expect Trump to Say Anything About Stormy Daniels, White House Says twitter:description: "I didn’t say he punches back on every single topic" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc82f034a71b99d6/69892bf997cdffd5e76b4c6e/gettyimages-9366137921.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Don't Expect Trump to Say Anything About Stormy Daniels, White House Says > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 27, 2018 8:08 PM UTC  Stormy Daniels in her interview with Anderson Cooper to be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, March 25 (7:0-8:00PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Image is a frame grab. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images) Stormy Daniels in her interview with Anderson Cooper to be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, March 25 (7:0-8:00PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Image is a frame grab. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images) CBS Photo Archive—CBS via Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 27, 2018 8:08 PM UTC The White House said President Donald Trump will continue to stay mum on Stormy Daniels, days after the porn star detailed their alleged sexual affair [on CBS’ _60 Minutes_.](http://time.com/5215079/stormy-daniels-60-minutes-donald-trump-reality-tv/?xid=homepage) “I didn’t say he punches back on every single topic,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday of Trump’s combative style, before swiping at the reporters assembled in the briefing room: “If he did, he would probably be addressing a lot of the stories you guys write every single minute of every single day. He also has a country to run.” Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, says she received a $130,000 payment days before the 2016 presidential election to keep quiet about her alleged 2006 affair with Trump. Daniels is seeking to [invalidate a nondisclosure agreemen](http://time.com/5188928/stormy-daniels-suing-donald-trump-over-nondisclosure/)t, and recently [expanded her lawsuit to include Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen](http://time.com/5216177/stormy-daniels-sues-trump-attorney-michael-cohen-for-defamation/), who she says has defamed her. As Daniels’ lawsuits and titillating details about her encounters with Trump continue to garner publicity, the President has stayed uncharacteristically quiet about the matter. In the past, Sanders [has said](http://www.businessinsider.com/sarah-huckabee-sanders-defends-trump-tweets-on-mika-brzezinski-facelift-2017-6), “When the President gets hit, he’s going to hit back harder,” and Melania Trump’s office has [espoused the same sentiment](https://www.thedailybeast.com/melania-spox-trump-will-punch-back-10-times-harder-when-attacked). At the time of this defense, Trump was waging a personal Twitter war with MSNBC’s _Morning Joe_ co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, which included a tweet referencing Brzezinski “[bleeding badly from a facelift](http://time.com/4838899/donald-trump-twitter-morning-joe-mike-brzezinski/).” The situation with Daniels has, so far, received a more tempered response. Through White House spokespeople, Trump has [denied Daniels’ claims](http://time.com/5215948/white-house-denies-stormy-daniels-affair/). “With respect to that interview, I will say the President strongly, clearly and has consistently denied these underlying claims,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said Monday. “The only person who has been inconsistent is the one making the claims.” But the story has even attracted comment by former President Jimmy Carter, who [told CBS on Tuesday](http://time.com/5216747/jimmy-carter-stormy-daniels-donald-trump/) he thinks the story will hurt Trump. “I think most people want a President who they trust to tell the truth always, and who has some basic moral values, including loyalty to his own wife,” he said. Responding to Carter’s barb, Sanders argued that Trump’s voters supported him for policy reasons, and that they’re still loyal to him. “I think the people that voted for and came out and supported him still do so, and do so because they believed in the agenda he was driving,” she said. “He’s been delivering on that since he came into office.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5217712/white-house-donald-trump-stormy-daniels/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5217712/white-house-donald-trump-stormy-daniels/"},"headline":"Don't Expect Trump to Say Anything About Stormy Daniels, White House Says","datePublished":"2018-03-27T20:08:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:47:30.715Z","description":"\"I didn’t say he punches back on every single topic\"","url":"https://time.com/5217712/white-house-donald-trump-stormy-daniels/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc82f034a71b99d6/69892bf997cdffd5e76b4c6e/gettyimages-9366137921.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbc82f034a71b99d6/69892bf997cdffd5e76b4c6e/gettyimages-9366137921.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"60 Minutes","caption":"60 Minutes","creditText":"CBS Photo Archive—CBS via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5217712/white-house-donald-trump-stormy-daniels/","name":"Don't Expect Trump to Say Anything About Stormy Daniels, White House Says"}}]}] ```