Trump walks into changing
room of teenagers at Miss Teen USA beauty pageant
By Samuel Warde
The Washington Post, BuzzFeed News and other media outlets are reporting
that Republican nominee Donald Trump walked in on Miss Teen USA beauty pageant
contestants as they were changing in their dressing rooms.
According
to BuzzFeed: “Four women who competed in the 1997 Miss Teen USA beauty pageant
said Donald Trump walked into the dressing room while contestants — some as
young as 15 — were changing.”
“I remember
putting on my dress really quick because I was like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a man
in here,’” said Mariah Billado, the former Miss Vermont Teen USA.
Trump, she
recalled, said something like, “Don’t worry, ladies, I’ve seen it all before.”
Three other women, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of getting engulfed in a media firestorm, also remembered Trump entering the dressing room while girls were changing. Two of them said the girls rushed to cover their bodies, with one calling it “shocking” and “creepy.” The third said she was clothed and introduced herself to Trump.
BuzzFeed reports
they contacted 11 other contestants from the pageant who did not recall seeing
Trump in the dressing room and as BuzzFeed adds: “Some said they do not believe
he could have been there.”
This news comes
in the wake of recent revelations by CNN that Trump had bragged to
Howard Stern about walking in on contestants as the owner of the Miss USA
pageant.
“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. And therefore I’m inspecting it,” he told Stern,
adding: “Is everyone okay? 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.”
As The Washington Post reports, “CBS 2 Los Angeles did a little fact-checking and,
guess what, this time, no Pinocchios. Tasha
Dixon, Miss Arizona in 2001, told the TV station that Trump just came “waltzing
in” while contestants were nude or half-nude as they changed into bikinis.”
Dixon told CBS 2
that:
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.Our first introduction to him was when we were at the dress rehearsal and half naked changing into our bikinis.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.
Dixon also
related that she thought the opportunity to walk in unannounced on contestants
was one of the reasons he became involved in beauty contests:
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.
