Trump’s birthday present bus mockup was rejected by the government in 2009, documents reveal

Disgraced US president Donald Trump planned to spend over HK$400,000 on risqué roof-top bus ads on Hong Kong double-deckers to woo actress Stephanie Clifford ahead of her Peninsula birthday party in 2009 but had the plans quashed by Hong Kong government censors, indictment records show.

The lewd bus plans came to light as a New York court released over 1,200 pages of documents in association with an indictment over alleged “hush money” paid to Clifford by Trump around the 2016 US presidential election.

According to court documents, Trump had planned to mount a surprise for Clifford – known professionally as Stormy Daniels – as she celebrated her 30th birthday at the Peninsula Hotel in March 2009.

Notes from the Max Myers advertising agency attached to CityBus deposit invoices in the indictment show Trump wanted something “special only Stormy can see” and had requested the roofs of the entire Route 8 bus fleet be reserved for a full-length shot of Trump himself, wearing only briefs, with the sides of the bus draped with an American flag and images of Clifford, also wearing the American flag.

“Who can see the top of the bus, am I right?” Trump told Max Myers. “We’ll tell Stormy when to look down from the bar, she’ll do it, and there I’ll be, on top of the bus. And nobody else will have a clue, it’s beautiful, it’s a beautiful thing”.

But Hong Kong’s Office of Newspaper and Advertising Administration (OFNAA) rejected the designs, claiming the use of an American flag on Hong Kong transport was “inappropriate” and tantamount to “foreign interference” which would “hurt the feelings of every Chinese bus passenger”.

Trump instead spent the money hiring a prostitute in Macao, following a dinner there with nightclub tycoon Allan Zeman, records show.