For some, beauty pageants may be about celebrating women and their talent. But for Donald Trump, it seems like it was a space for some sleazy personal entertainment when he owned the Miss Universe and the Miss USA pageants.
Trump bragged about the privileges and perks he enjoyed while he was the owner of these pageants on the talk show The Howard Stern Show in April 2005.
And now, former beauty queen have lashed out at how Trump came “waltzing in” while contestants were nude.
After the first Trump tape, which had him talking lewdly about women, came out, CNN put out a story with recordings of him on The Howard Stern Show speaking about women in the pageants. It shows him talking about how they’d be naked when he went to the dressing rooms. Howard Stern, the show’s host. and Trump also discuss whether he had sex with the contestants.
I’ll go backstage before a show, and everyone’s getting dressed and ready and everything else. And you know, no men are anywhere. And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. You know they’re standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible-looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that.Donald Trump on a talk show in 2005
Trump ‘Waltzed in’ While Contestants Were Naked: Miss Arizona
Tasha Dixon, Miss Arizona in 2001, told CBS 2 Los Angeles that Trump just came “waltzing in” while contestants were nude or half-nude as they changed into bikinis.
She described her experience in the dressing room in the Miss USA pageant 2001:
He just came strolling right in. There was no second to put a robe on or any sort of clothing or anything. Some girls were topless. Others girls were naked.
To have the owner come waltzing in, when we’re naked, or half-naked, in a very physically vulnerable position and then to have the pressure of the people that worked for him telling us to go fawn all over him, go walk up to him, talk to him, get his attention.
She suggested that such opportunities were among the reasons Trump owned beauty pageants.
I’m telling you Donald Trump owned the pageant for the reasons to utilize his power to get around beautiful women. Who do you complain to? He owns the pageant. There’s no one to complain to. Everyone there works for him.Tasha Dixon, Miss USA 2001 Contestant
Teen Contestants Also Say Trump Walked in on Them Changing
In a separate report, Buzzfeed News said that four women from the 1997 Miss Teen USA also remembered Trump entering the dressing room while girls were changing; some were as young as 15 at the time.
I remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a man in here’.Mariah Billado, former Miss Teen USA Contestant
Trump, she told BuzzFeed News, said “something like ‘Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve seen it all before.’”
She also said that she saw Trump’s intrusion as “more of a pompous ‘I own this place’ rather than a perverted thing”.
Here is the recording of Trump on the show with Stern:
(With inputs from Washington Post, CNN, Buzzfeed News)
'Absolutely False Claims': Trump
However Donald Trump on Thursday angrily denied several accusations of groping in a growing controversy over inappropriate behaviour with women that is damaging the Republican presidential candidate's chances of winning the election.
Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, the New York Times and other media were engaged in a concerted, "vicious" attempt to stop him, Trump told a rally in West Palm Beach, Florida.
These claims are all fabricated. They’re pure fiction and they’re outright lies. These events never, ever happened. I would make public at some point evidence to dispute the claims. These vicious claims about me of inappropriate conduct with women are totally and absolutely false. And the Clintons know it and they know well.Donald Trump
(With inputs from Reuters)
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