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His reputation among women was hardly glowing to begin with.

But when Donald Trump tried to demolish his latest critic, Alicia Machado – a former beauty queen who he had once publicly called and fat – by accusing her of appearing in a sex tape, Hillary Clinton’s team pointed out that his stance may be a tad hypocritical.

For Trump himself once appeared in a promotional video for Playboy . Back in 2000, the tycoon is seen popping open a bottle of champagne and spraying it over the side of a Playboy bus.

Surrounded by a gaggle of attractive women, he declares, “Beauty is beauty”, and there, thankfully, Trump’s involvement ends as the action changes to a soft-core porno featuring two perky Peruvian twins.

The unearthing of the Playboy flick has done little to help public perception about Trump’s attitude to the opposite sex.

Neither have his attacks on Alicia, who he abused in a 3am rant on Twitter.

The ex-beauty queen won the Miss Universe title in 1996, aged 19, shortly after the contest was bought by Trump. She claims his treatment of her, which included him forcing her to endure public gym sessions to shed weight, left her anorexic.

Trump’s reaction to her accusations has seen his support among women and Latino voters plummet, and the Clinton camp have been cashing in, choosing Alicia to appear in an attack ad against Trump.

Speaking at the first presidential debate last week, Clinton fumed: “He called this woman Miss Piggy. The he called her Miss Housekeeping, because she was Latina. Donald, she has a name.”

Now, aged 39 and a US citizen, Alicia explains how she has become embroiled in the increasingly bizarre race for the White House.

She says: “I was the first Miss Universe after Trump bought the pageant.

(Image: REUTERS)

“He was overwhelming. I was very scared of him. He’d yell at me all the time. He’d tell me, ‘You look ugly’ or ‘You look fat’.”

When Alicia put on weight after winning the title, Trump initially threatened to decrown her. Instead, he invited dozens of reporters to watch her work out and film her trying to shift the weight.

He said at the time: “She weighed 118 pounds or 117 pounds and she went up to 160 or 170. So this is somebody who likes to eat.”

Having previously struggled with bulimia, Alicia relapsed. She said: “Sometimes I didn’t want to go out anywhere. I was all the time in the bathroom. That is horrible. I have never been the same person after that experience.”

Clinton’s team are using Alicia’s damning claims to target the crucial Latino vote.

In the campaign ad, she says of the businessman: “It was very humiliating. I felt really bad, like a lab rat.

“It had turned into a circus, the joke of the Fat Miss Universe. A joke that caused me a lot of pain. Long after, I was sick with eating disorders. I wouldn’t eat, and would still see myself as fat, because a powerful man had said so.

(Image: Getty Images)

“This is a man who doesn’t realise the damage he causes. He bears many grudges and harbours a deep racism, and he is convinced that there are lesser human beings than him.”

And Alicia is utterly astonished that he’s now in the running to be president.

She says: “Now, 20 years later, I cannot believe that piece of s**t could possibly be president. It was a nightmare I wouldn’t want my daughter or any other little girl in this country to ever, ever encounter. This man behaved like a tyrant when I was Miss Universe and has behaved like a potential despot during this campaign.

“He lacks the basic skills to govern and is not a good human being.”

Speaking in Spanish in the video, she adds: “My problems started with him. When he started to use me. To expose me. To bully me. This is not revenge from me. I know this person very well. I know what he can do.”

(Image: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty)

As Trump has pointed out, Clinton’s strategy is not without risk as, by her own admission, Alicia has had a colourful life.

The Venezuela-born star – who now has a seven-year-old daughter – left college to compete for the Miss Universe crown at 19.

After her troubled year as the title holder, she was accused of being an accomplice to a murder attempt by her then-boyfriend.

She denied involvement and a judge later said there was insufficient evidence to arrest her. Alicia also denied making a threatening phone call to a judge and no charges were ever brought.

She twice posed nude for Playboy and went on to become a TV actress and businesswoman. Then she took part in a reality TV show but was kicked off for sleeping with another contestant – which is the supposed sex tape that Trump tweeted about. She says: “Everybody has a past. I’m not a saint girl.”

Trump hit back, telling a TV news show: “That person was a Miss Universe person, and she was the worst we ever had. She gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem.”

Then came that early-morning Twitter tirade: “Using Alicia M as a paragon of virtue just showed that Crooked Hillary suffers from BAD JUDGEMENT! Hillary was set up by a con.”

He also suggested the Clinton camp had helped Alicia gain US citizenship, posting: “Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a US citizen?”

(Image: Getty Images)

But with his inevitable retaliation Trump seems to be playing right into Clinton’s hands.

She retorted: “I mean, his latest Twitter meltdown is unhinged, even for him.

“Really, who gets up at 3 O’clock in the morning to engage in a Twitter attack against a former Miss Universe?”

Trump, of course, hit back, posting: “For those people knocking me for tweeting at three o’clock in the morning, at least you know I will be there, awake, to answer the call!”

Despite Trump’s attempts to discredit her, Alicia is sticking to her guns: “He is a danger to this beautiful country which I love and feel an obligation to protect from men like Trump on behalf of my daughter, women, mothers, Latinas like me. He is a threat to democracy.

And her Clinton campaign advert ends: “I think Donald Trump definitely lacks the ability, experience, preparation, and human qualities, to be president of the United States.”