Former Miss Arizona: Trump ‘just came strolling right in’ on naked contestants
On an April 11, 2005, Howard Stern show, Donald Trump bragged about some of the special perks he enjoyed while owner of the Miss USA pageant. They came not in a locker room but a dressing room.
“I’ll go backstage before a show and everyone’s getting dressed and ready and everything else,” he said. “And you know, no men are anywhere. And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. And therefore I’m inspecting it.”
Said Stern: “You’re like a doctor.”
Responded Trump: “Is everyone OK? 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.”
CBS 2 Los Angeles did a little fact checking and this time, no Pinocchios. Tasha Dixon, Miss Arizona of 2001, told the station Trump just came “waltzing in” while contestants were nude or half-nude as they changed into bikinis.
Separately, Buzzfeed reported Wednesday that four women in the 1997 Miss Teen USA beauty pageant said he walked into their dressing room while they were changing. Some were as young as 15, Buzzfeed said.
“I remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a man in here,’ ” Mariah Billado, a former Miss Vermont Teen USA told Buzzfeed.
According to an account by Rolling Stone, Miss Washington 2013 recalled when she was a contestant, the businessman demanded women redo their introductions when they failed to look Trump in the eye. In a recent Facebook post, Cassandra Searles, of Redmond, Washington, called Trump a “misogynist” who “lined up so he could get a closer look at his property.”
Searles added, “He probably doesn’t want me telling the story about that time he continually grabbed my ass and invited me to his hotel room.”
Two women told the New York Times that Trump touched them inappropriately – groping a woman in one instance and kissing a woman in another – during separate encounters that took place as long as three decades ago, the newspaper reported Wednesday.
Trump told the Times there was no truth to either of the claims.
Another newspaper, the Palm Beach Post in Florida, reported Wednesday night that a woman said Trump groped her at his Mar-a-Lago estate 13 years ago. Trump’s campaign said her allegation “lacks any merit or veracity.”
According to Tasha Dixon, Miss Arizona of 2001, there was more inspecting than doctoring.
In an interview with the station, she described her experience with Trump as a contestant in a dressing room where she and others were changing: “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.”
She suggested such opportunities were among the reasons he owned 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 … ”
Other wire services contributed to this report.