Woman tells the Guardian ‘He walked in, he stood and he stared’ as she and another young contestant were getting dressed for rehearsal for 2001 pageant

Donald Trump deliberately walked in on two young Miss USA 2001 contestants while they were naked and getting dressed for a rehearsal, one of the former beauty contestants has claimed in an interview with the Guardian.

The two women were putting on their outfits to rehearse the opening number, the former contestant recalled, when Trump, who owned the pageant at the time as part of the Miss Universe family of pageants, burst into the room without a word.

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Just before he entered, the former contestant said, she heard the security detail outside the dressing room tell someone approaching the door that the women inside were naked.

“Mr Trump just barged right in, didn’t say anything, stood there and stared at us,” she recalled. Trump’s attitude, she said, seemed to be: “I can do this because I can.”

“He didn’t walk in and say, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry, I was looking for someone,’” she continued. “He walked in, he stood and he stared. He was doing it because he knew that he could.”

The alleged incident happened in her shared dressing room behind the stage at the Genesis convention center in Gary, Indiana.

The woman – who did not wish to be identified – is the second competitor from the 2001 Miss USA pageant to claim that Trump took advantage of owning the pageant, which he broadcast on NBC, in order to view the contestants naked.

A torrent of sexual misconduct accusations have followed Trump throughout his run for president. But a 2005 tape of Trump bragging that his fame allowed him to grope and kiss women without their consent has inspired even more women to come forward with stories of his impropriety.

On Wednesday evening, the New York Times published the accounts of two women who claim Trump groped or kissed them without their permission. This is contrary to Trump’s claim, in Sunday night’s debate with Hillary Clinton, that he never acted on his boasts.

“I wanted to punch the screen,” Jessica Leeds, who said Trump had groped her on a plane three decades ago, told the paper. “He was like an octopus. His hands were everywhere.”

Rachel Crooks was a 22-year-old receptionist in 2005 when, she said, Trump kissed her on the mouth when she introduced herself to him. “It was so inappropriate,” Crooks told the Times. “I was so upset that he thought I was so insignificant that he could do that.”

Trump angrily denied both accusations.

‘Waltzing in’

The other 2001 beauty contestant to accuse Trump of misconduct was Tasha Dixon. In an interview with CBS of Los Angeles, Dixon, the former Miss Arizona, recalled an incident in which Trump came “waltzing in” to a room while a number of the contestants were half naked or undressed.

Dixon was describing a separate incident to the one detailed to Guardian US by the other contestant. .

The contestant declined to speak using her name because she lives in a conservative area and wishes to protect her family’s privacy. The Guardian corroborated the former contestant’s story with another contestant who became her friend during the 2001 pageant. The other contestant confirmed that the Guardian’s source told her about the incident at the pageant site in 2001 shortly after it occurred.

A second woman who was sharing the dressing room with the Guardian’s source when Trump allegedly barged in did not respond to several emails requesting interviews.

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Trump owned the Miss Universe family of pageants, to which Miss USA belonged, from 1996 to 2005. The first contestant to win Miss Universe under Trump’s ownership was Alicia Machado – famously name-checked by Hillary Clinton during the first presidential debate, who said Trump had called Machado “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping”, a dig at her Latina heritage.

Trump has boasted in the past, during a 2005 segment of the Howard Stern show, about being able to view beauty contestants naked.

“I’ll go backstage before a show, and everyone’s getting dressed and ready and everything else,” he said, in a tape obtained by CNN. “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. ‘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.”

Dixon, the other Miss USA 2001 competitor who has spoken out, said many of the contestants’ very first encounter with Trump occurred while many of them were naked. “He just came strolling right in,” she said. “There was no second to put a robe on or any sort of clothing or anything. Some girls were topless.

“We were naked or half naked in a very physically vulnerable position,” she continued. “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.”

Separately, Buzzfeed reported on Wednesday that several teen beauty queens from the 1997 Miss Teen USA said Trump entered a communal dressing room while several of them were naked. One girl was 15 years old at the time.

Another Miss USA contestant from 2001 who spoke to the Guardian did not recall Trump showing inappropriate behavior. She recalled Trump being backstage, she said, but only on the evening that the pageant was nationally televised.

“The chaperones made announcements that he was there & would be coming into the dressing room,” the former contestant, who wished to remain anonymous, wrote in an email. “They gave us all a heads up, it was also very close to the pageant starting & very brief. I would imagine that most, if not all contestants were already, or at least should have been, dressed to compete.”

The contestant remembered Trump standing in the doorway and wishing them good luck and said he did not “parade” through the room. “I am not endorsing anyone, but giving an honest account of meeting Mr Trump,” she said.

The contestant who accused Trump of bursting into her dressing room acknowledged that not every contestant had negative experiences with Trump. She did not report Trump’s behavior at the time, she said, because her position was too tenuous.

“This was my boss. I’m there to represent my state, my town, my reputation on one of the most prestigious stages on the planet,” she said. “I had not a lot of experience under my belt. And it was horrifying … It was extremely uncomfortable from there forward.”

Until she saw Dixon’s interview, she thought that she and the other woman in the dressing room were Trump’s only targets.

“It’s important for people to know that this has been a personality trait of his for a long time,” she said, explaining her motivation for speaking out. “He completely exerted his power and the control that he had … And I do believe that kind of behavior perpetuates rape culture and makes young boys think they can behave that way.”

Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.