NEW YORK — Stormy Daniels will return to the witness stand in Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial Thursday morning, testing the ability of both the adult film star and the former president to keep their cool.

Daniels on Tuesday ended her testimony in the midst of a harsh cross-examination in which Trump’s lawyer repeatedly accused her of lying about an affair with the former president. Trump drew the judge’s ire by swearing while Daniels testified, coming close to violating a gag order in the case.

Trump vented his anger on social media Wednesday, accusing New York State Justice Juan Merchan of violating his free-speech rights by barring him from responding to “sleazebags, lowlifes, and grifters” who get to say “absolutely anything that they want.” Trump didn’t reference Daniels specifically.

“It is hard to sit back and listen to lies and false statements be made against you knowing that if you respond, even in the most modest fashion, you are told by a Corrupt and Highly Conflicted Judge that you will be PUT IN PRISON, maybe for a long period of time,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

Trump had fumed on Tuesday as Daniels described in vivid and tawdry detail her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite, after they met at a celebrity golf tournament. The highly anticipated testimony prompted swearing by Trump that could be heard by the judge.

“I understand that your client is upset at this point, but he is cursing audibly, and he is shaking his head visually and that’s contemptuous,” Merchan told Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche in a sidebar conversation that was made public when the daily transcript of the trial was released Tuesday night. “It has the potential to intimidate the witness, and the jury can see that.”

A photograph of Daniels and Trump smiling side by side at the event was shown to the jury on Tuesday. Daniels described in detail the alleged sexual encounter that she said took place after Trump’s bodyguard invited her to Trump’s hotel that night for dinner.

“He was wearing silk or satin pajamas, like two-piece pajamas, that I immediately made fun of,” Daniels said as a prosecutor questioned her about the encounter. “‘Does Mr. Hefner know you stole his pajamas?’”

The scene injected a tabloid-ready moment into the trial, as the adult-film actress squared off against the former president before a jury of New Yorkers who will determine his fate.

Campaign damage

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